Al Ain midfielder Hussein El Shahat has said the club’s “loyal fans” will help drive their bid for success when the Arabian Gulf League champions take part in the 2018 Fifa Club World Cup in the UAE.
As champions of the domestic league, Al Ain have earned their place in the December 12-22 tournament, where the winners of each continental competition will vie for the right to be named world champions.
The Garden City club will be joined in the UAE by Uefa Champions League winners Real Madrid, Concacaf winners Guadalajara, and OFC champions Wellington.
The representatives for Asia (AFC), Africa (CAF), and South America (Conmebol) will be confirmed in November.
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Read more:
[ Hussein El Shahat confirms commitment to Al Ain amid Al Ahly reports ]
UAE hailed as 'the perfect host' as 2019 Asian Cup tickets go on sale
[ When is the 2018 Fifa Club World Cup? All you need to know about the UAE tournament ]
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The matches will be held at Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi and at Al Ain’s Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, and Shahat is confident home advantage can play its part.
“It will be great playing in front of our home fans in Al Ain – they always support us home and away,” the 26-year-old Egyptian said.
“It makes a huge difference to us as players to know we have this unwavering support from our loyal fans.
“We have great fans that support the team throughout the year, and this will give us huge support and a big boost in the tournament. Our fans are the best in the UAE, but we hope all UAE fans will support us because we are playing for all of the Emirates.”
Playing in front of home fans seemed to boost rivals Al Jazira last year when, as UAE champions, they took part in the 2017 Club World Cup.
Jazira went on to reach the semi-finals before narrowly losing 2-1 to Real Madrid, having held the lead before Gareth Bale scored the winner with nine minutes remaining.
Al Ain manager Zoran Mamic echoed El Shahat’s sentiments and believes the club’s supporters can inspire his players.
“For the country and football fans in the Emirates it is a big thing to see these international players in the flesh,” Mamic said from Al Ain’s training camp in Slovenia where they are preparing for the Arabian Super Cup against Al Wahda in Cairo on August 25. “But we know our loyal fans will create an atmosphere that drives our players to perform above and beyond themselves.”
Al Ain chairman Ghanem Mubarak Al Hejari agreed with El Shahat and Mamic and is looking forward to watching his team test their abilities against some of the best sides in the world.
“There will be world-class clubs playing in this competition and we will stand together and show the same strength that saw us win the double this season,” he said.
“The world will see how the sons of the desert perform. Al Ain fans and the UAE in general love their sport, love their football and I know they will be looking forward to December 12 when the tournament starts – home support will be key to our hopes.”
KEY DATES IN AMAZON'S HISTORY
July 5, 1994: Jeff Bezos founds Cadabra Inc, which would later be renamed to Amazon.com, because his lawyer misheard the name as 'cadaver'. In its earliest days, the bookstore operated out of a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington
July 16, 1995: Amazon formally opens as an online bookseller. Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought becomes the first item sold on Amazon
1997: Amazon goes public at $18 a share, which has grown about 1,000 per cent at present. Its highest closing price was $197.85 on June 27, 2024
1998: Amazon acquires IMDb, its first major acquisition. It also starts selling CDs and DVDs
2000: Amazon Marketplace opens, allowing people to sell items on the website
2002: Amazon forms what would become Amazon Web Services, opening the Amazon.com platform to all developers. The cloud unit would follow in 2006
2003: Amazon turns in an annual profit of $75 million, the first time it ended a year in the black
2005: Amazon Prime is introduced, its first-ever subscription service that offered US customers free two-day shipping for $79 a year
2006: Amazon Unbox is unveiled, the company's video service that would later morph into Amazon Instant Video and, ultimately, Amazon Video
2007: Amazon's first hardware product, the Kindle e-reader, is introduced; the Fire TV and Fire Phone would come in 2014. Grocery service Amazon Fresh is also started
2009: Amazon introduces Amazon Basics, its in-house label for a variety of products
2010: The foundations for Amazon Studios were laid. Its first original streaming content debuted in 2013
2011: The Amazon Appstore for Google's Android is launched. It is still unavailable on Apple's iOS
2014: The Amazon Echo is launched, a speaker that acts as a personal digital assistant powered by Alexa
2017: Amazon acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, its biggest acquisition
2018: Amazon's market cap briefly crosses the $1 trillion mark, making it, at the time, only the third company to achieve that milestone
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Tips for newlyweds to better manage finances
All couples are unique and have to create a financial blueprint that is most suitable for their relationship, says Vijay Valecha, chief investment officer at Century Financial. He offers his top five tips for couples to better manage their finances.
Discuss your assets and debts: When married, it’s important to understand each other’s personal financial situation. It’s necessary to know upfront what each party brings to the table, as debts and assets affect spending habits and joint loan qualifications. Discussing all aspects of their finances as a couple prevents anyone from being blindsided later.
Decide on the financial/saving goals: Spouses should independently list their top goals and share their lists with one another to shape a joint plan. Writing down clear goals will help them determine how much to save each month, how much to put aside for short-term goals, and how they will reach their long-term financial goals.
Set a budget: A budget can keep the couple be mindful of their income and expenses. With a monthly budget, couples will know exactly how much they can spend in a category each month, how much they have to work with and what spending areas need to be evaluated.
Decide who manages what: When it comes to handling finances, it’s a good idea to decide who manages what. For example, one person might take on the day-to-day bills, while the other tackles long-term investments and retirement plans.
Money date nights: Talking about money should be a healthy, ongoing conversation and couples should not wait for something to go wrong. They should set time aside every month to talk about future financial decisions and see the progress they’ve made together towards accomplishing their goals.
The five pillars of Islam
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
