It will be a time for many firsts when Saudi Arabia hosts the 2023 Club World Cup, adding another chapter to its fast-evolving sports landscape.
The tournament is being held in the kingdom for the first time, underscoring the growing reputation of Saudi Arabia as one of the premier sports destinations on the planet.
Treble winners Manchester City will be making their debut in the tournament. Other teams participating are hosts Al Ittihad, African champions Al Ahly of Egypt, Brazil's South American champions Fluminense, Urawa Red Diamonds from Japan, Club Leon of Mexico and New Zealand's Auckland City FC.
The seven-team tournament, which brings together the champions of the six continental confederations, takes place in Jeddah from Tuesday, with matches being held at the Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium and King Abdullah Sports City Stadium.
Club World Cup stats and trivia
1 – The Club World Cup is being held in Saudi Arabia for the first time. The tournament has been held in the Gulf seven times in the past: five times in the UAE and twice in Qatar.
5 – Real Madrid are the most successful team in the competition’s history, winning it five times: 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022.
6 – Toni Kroos is one of four players who have participated in six Club World Cups – the most. The others are Daniel Koprivcic, Ivan Vicelich, and Emiliano Tade. Kroos took part in the 2013 edition with Bayern Munich and 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2022 as a member of Real Madrid. The German midfielder has won all six tournaments.
7 – Cristiano Ronaldo is the leading scorer in the competition’s history with seven. He netted once for Manchester United in 2008, four times for Real Madrid in 2016 and twice for Real the following year.
11 – New Zealand club Auckland City have made the most appearances in the tournament, with the 2023 edition being their 11th.
15 – Uefa clubs have enjoyed the most success, winning the Club World Cup 15 times in 19 editions. South American sides won it the remaining four times.
17 – During the 2006 tournament in Japan, Internacional’s Alexandre Pato scored on his professional debut against Palmeiras. At 17 years and 102 days old, he broke Pele’s record to become the youngest goalscorer in a senior Fifa men’s competition.
44 – Oscar Perez was the goalkeeper for Pachuca against Gremio in the 2017 edition in the UAE, at the age of 44 years and 10 months. That made him the oldest player to appear in the tournament by more than five years.
Club World Cup 2023 fixtures
First round
December 12 – Al Ittihad v Auckland City, King Abdullah Sports City, 9pm (Saudi time)
Second round
December 15 – Club Leon v Urawa Reds, Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium, 5:30pm
December 16 – Al Ahly v Winners Match 1, King Abdullah Sports City, 9pm
Semi-finals
December 18 – Fluminense v Winners Match 2, King Abdullah Sports City, 9pm
December 19 – Manchester City v Winners Match 3, King Abdullah Sports City, 9pm
Third place play-off
December 22 – Losers Match 4 v Losers Match 5, Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium, 5:30pm
Final
December 22 – Winners Match 4 v Winners Match 5, King Abdullah Sports City, 9pm
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
The biog
Year of birth: 1988
Place of birth: Baghdad
Education: PhD student and co-researcher at Greifswald University, Germany
Hobbies: Ping Pong, swimming, reading
'Saand Ki Aankh'
Produced by: Reliance Entertainment with Chalk and Cheese Films
Director: Tushar Hiranandani
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Prakash Jha, Vineet Singh
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Jawan
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Astroworld
Travis Scott
Grand Hustle/Epic/Cactus Jack
match info
Southampton 0
Arsenal 2 (Nketiah 20', Willock 87')
Red card: Jack Stephens (Southampton)
Man of the match: Rob Holding (Arsenal)
World Cup final
Who: France v Croatia
When: Sunday, July 15, 7pm (UAE)
TV: Game will be shown live on BeIN Sports for viewers in the Mena region
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Third Test
Day 3, stumps
India 443-7 (d) & 54-5 (27 ov)
Australia 151
India lead by 346 runs with 5 wickets remaining
Netherlands v UAE, Twenty20 International series
Saturday, August 3 - First T20i, Amstelveen
Monday, August 5 – Second T20i, Amstelveen
Tuesday, August 6 – Third T20i, Voorburg
Thursday, August 8 – Fourth T20i, Vooryburg
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Central%20Bank's%20push%20for%20a%20robust%20financial%20infrastructure
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Coal Black Mornings
Brett Anderson
Little Brown Book Group
