As the queue forms to be the next president of Barcelona, following Tuesday's resignation by the beleaguered Josep Maria Bartomeu, potential candidates can all see clearly where the power really resides. It is with a single footballer. There is almost no issue as important in elections for the new president as Lionel Messi.
Messi, the greatest player in Barcelona’s history, directly accelerated Bartomeu’s departure. The now former president, who had served in the position since 2014, had hoped to complete a mandate due to expire next year. Yet once the club captain described the running of the club as “disastrous,” citing Bartomeu, his days were numbered.
Supporters mobilised to oust him after Messi reached such a low point of exasperation with the club, with the quality of the squad, and had developed such suspicion towards the board, that he asked to leave. Only when Bartomeu insisted Messi must honour a contract that has a season left on it and a buyout clause of €700 million ($822m) until next June did the skipper agree to stay.
So much for the antagonism, and a storyline that had Messi as the troubled hero versus Bartomeu the bad landlord who clumsily failed to appreciate the importance of the club’s icon. The landscape now changes abruptly for 33-year-old Messi. The elections for a new president are expected to take place in early January, by which time candidates will have privately sounded out the superstar about his intentions. Supporters will be anxious to know them, too.
What if Messi still wants to go, even when a fresh regime is in charge? Barcelonistas, the fans, might not be so sympathetic to the captain then.
It may be that the next president can and will persuade Messi there is a bold, compelling way to revive a Barca who have just finished a season without a trophy for the first time in 12 years. But the revival will have to be a relatively cut-price one.
The next president, however gifted, will be confronted with the same reality that Bartomeu was: that the era of big spending is over. The club’s debt is climbing towards €500m, with the coronavirus crisis having swelled the annual losses for the outgoing president’s final season, 2019/20.
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Barca fans protest outside Camp Nou
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That was the year that turned Messi from loyal, one-club man to wantaway desperado. It changed him.
The private, diffident professional became an outspoken combatant, calling out his bosses in the media when, among many points of contention, they failed to push through the big-name transfers the captain thought were needed, such as buying back Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain; or when the dressing-room was blamed for Bartomeu’s sacking of Ernesto Valverde as head coach in January.
That was not true, blasted Messi, adding that “we players are the first to take responsibility when we fall short. The sporting executives should also take responsibility and own up to decisions they have made.”
Those sharp ripostes to the board would come around more and more regularly. There has been a common theme from Messi: Barcelona’s standards have been steadily falling.
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Bayern 8, Barca 2
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He had said so before Bayern Munich beat Barca 8-2 in the quarter-final of the Champions League in August. He hardly needed to say it again after that, a crushing night for Bartomeu, in which the president saw a player who he spent close to €150m on, Philippe Coutinho, scoring twice for Bayern, where Barca had loaned him after an unhappy 18 months as the most expensive signing in Barcelona history.
He saw a striker he had spent €120m on, Antoine Griezmann, left on the bench, barely a year after the Frenchman joined. Yet another, Ousmane Dembele, was already way out on the margins. Dembele’s €100m-plus recruitment has yielded only 36 Liga starts in well over three years as a Barcelona player.
The huge cost of those players are part of Bartomeu’s unhappy legacy. “It was time for him to go,” said Joan Laporta, a former Barca president from the successful period in which Messi came into the first team. Intriguingly, Laporta may well put his name forward to come back into the role.
Whoever takes over will need to be imaginative, or take some radical steps to make the club dominant enough in the transfer market to supply the sorts of teammates Messi would like, or indeed to buy in the type of player who can ease the impact of Messi’s departure, or eventual retirement.
One of Bartomeu’s last acts as president was to recommend the club push forward plans for a selective, lucrative European Super League, in which they would be members. “It would guarantee the club’s future financial stability,” he suggested.
But while the so-called Super League has powerful backing, it faces many hurdles before it can be more than just the dreamy plan of a cartel of leading clubs.
Messi will most likely be somewhere else before the Super League even has a prospective starting date.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDirect%20Debit%20System%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Sept%202017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20with%20a%20subsidiary%20in%20the%20UK%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Undisclosed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Elaine%20Jones%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%208%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
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.”
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SERIE A FIXTURES
Saturday (All UAE kick-off times)
Cagliari v AC Milan (6pm)
Lazio v Napoli (9pm)
Inter Milan v Atalanta (11.45pm)
Sunday
Udinese v Sassuolo (3.30pm)
Sampdoria v Brescia (6pm)
Fiorentina v SPAL (6pm)
Torino v Bologna (6pm)
Verona v Genoa (9pm)
Roma V Juventus (11.45pm)
Parma v Lecce (11.45pm)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
What vitamins do we know are beneficial for living in the UAE
Vitamin D: Highly relevant in the UAE due to limited sun exposure; supports bone health, immunity and mood.
Vitamin B12: Important for nerve health and energy production, especially for vegetarians, vegans and individuals with absorption issues.
Iron: Useful only when deficiency or anaemia is confirmed; helps reduce fatigue and support immunity.
Omega-3 (EPA/DHA): Supports heart health and reduces inflammation, especially for those who consume little fish.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
