At the start of April 2012, I noticed that Montpellier were leading Ligue 1 in France, ahead of big-spending PSG despite having the 13th highest budget in the league.
Montpellier had never won the title and a look at the calendar showed they would play champions Lille, with Eden Hazard, on May 13. I booked a few days in France’s eighth biggest city to witness the event.
At the time, Manchester United were eight points clear in the Premier League and the title would likely be won either against Everton, Manchester City or Swansea. I’d be at all three.
That was my wildly incorrect assumption which saw me rule out a trip to Sunderland on the final game of the season for what I assumed would be a dead rubber. It would be far better to be in Montpellier.
What happened next was that United started dropping points. A 1-0 defeat to Wigan on April 11, a 4-4 draw at home to a buzzing Everton team.
United’s failure to beat Everton didn’t just cost United, it gave rivals hope. They thought United had gone and they were right.
Crucially, a 1-0 defeat at City in a critical Manchester derby followed. And with that, I felt the league was lost, but I’d made my plans and had to stick to them.
The train pulled into Montpellier at 1pm on Sunday afternoon. I’d Googled an Irish bar which would be showing United’s game, which I’d watch in hope but little expectation of winning the league.
There were four other people inside the city’s old town when the games kicked off.
City were on one screen in English at home to QPR, United away in Sunderland in French on another. I watched United but kept swivelling around.
Always the optimist, my hopes started to rise almost from the first minute as City didn’t score when they needed to.
Wayne Rooney’s goal brought relief, but that was secondary to what was happening at the Etihad. When City went ahead, what sliver of hope I had was crushed.
A West African lad came and sat next to me with his girlfriend. His ‘oohs and aahs’ told me he was United. I liked him.
A Turkish man with slicked back hair in a United shirt came in while expats and students started to fill the place. They hadn’t gone there to watch football, but they slowly found themselves transfixed by events on the two screens in the corner.
And then it happened. QPR equalised. Djibril Cisse, 48 minutes. I celebrated that more than any Manchester United goal all season. Sad, eh?
Joey Barton then ruined it by getting sent off. The Liverpudlian former City player was influencing the outcome of the Premier League. Or was he?
No. QPR scored again. Jamie Mackie, 66 minutes. I started to dream the impossible. Which United fan didn’t? I danced alone in a room I’d never been in before, a pathetic spectacle. Other customers looked at me as if I was a mad man as I shouted: “Come on United! Come on!”
Crying City fans came on television and I laughed out loud. This was so City, to come so close and yet fail. They even had a book called Cups for Cock-ups.
City were about to fail and lose the league to United, when they all thought they had won it. This was going to hilarious and triumphant.
The room continued to fill. A group of students who were United came in – they were loving it and danced around too. I was more than happy for them.
I prayed for Manchester City not to score. I’m a hypocrite who only prays in the darkest hour – and not for mere outcomes of football games. And now I was praying out loud for City not to score a goal. Praying for the clock to speed up.
Not watching Manchester United in front of my eyes, but twisting awkwardly until my back hurt to see City in the other corner without ever wanting to watch City over United. Seconds lasted for minutes.
“If we get to 75 minutes we’ll be alright,” I say to nobody in particular. “80 and we’ll be fine.”
It was back to the screen and hoping that QPR would somehow keep possession.
“85 minutes and the title is ours,” I thought, never for one minute thinking that Sunderland would score against United. That game was over and done, even when it wasn’t.
I didn’t really start to believe until 85 minutes. Properly believe that Manchester United were going to win the league. That’s when I made the mistake of relaxing and enjoying it.
“You from Manchester?” asked another United fan before embracing me. United were going to win the league and my only regret – a big one too – was that I wasn’t there to see it. I didn’t expect a final twist, let alone four twists at games I’d been at.
And then it happened. City scored. Didn’t see it. Don’t know who scored it. Still don’t. The next few minutes were a haze. I remember the Irish landlord smiling at me sympathetically.
They scored again. Sergio Aguero wasn’t it? The places erupted, neutrals as opposed to City astonished by what they were seeing. They were happy for City.
Head in bits, I rolled my newspaper up, slipped through the crowd and out of the door into the bright sunlight and a near deserted old town.
My head was, in Mancunian parlance, battered. I felt like I’d just had the high point and low point of the year crushed into half an hour – but I was in Montpellier to do a job.
I walked and walked. Past churches and ancient squares full of beautiful European students listening to the lulling of live music.
I was annoyed with myself for letting it get to me like this. I was 38, not eight. I was a sensible father and a husband.
I could count on my hand the number of times I’d genuinely been floored when Manchester United lost a game: West Ham in 1992 and Anfield a few days later, Barca 4 United 0 and Rome in 2009. Other games may have been more obviously sickened to some, but that’s how I felt.
My Blue brother-in-law texted the results. He was inside the Etihad. As if I wouldn’t know. More text messages (remember them?) arrived from Reds in Sunderland. Their mood reflected mine.
An hour later I was outside Montpellier’s ground, where the party atmosphere was at odds with my foul mood.
Raffish kids from the nearby estates hounded ticket touts, men sipped from bottles and chanted Montpellier songs.
It would be the first full house at the 32,000 capacity stadium since France ’98. I had to speak to strangers, to get quotes for a story.
When they found out I was from Manchester they all said: “We just watched the games!” Reminders in every conversation. Montpellier won the title.
Football, eh? It’s why we love it, but on days like that Sunday, it’s why we hate it too. And now, eight years on from that afternoon, it’s why we miss it.
'Jurassic%20World%20Dominion'
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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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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Bert van Marwijk factfile
Born: May 19 1952
Place of birth: Deventer, Netherlands
Playing position: Midfielder
Teams managed:
1998-2000 Fortuna Sittard
2000-2004 Feyenoord
2004-2006 Borussia Dortmund
2007-2008 Feyenoord
2008-2012 Netherlands
2013-2014 Hamburg
2015-2017 Saudi Arabia
2018 Australia
Major honours (manager):
2001/02 Uefa Cup, Feyenoord
2007/08 KNVB Cup, Feyenoord
World Cup runner-up, Netherlands
Kalra's feat
- Becomes fifth batsman to score century in U19 final
- Becomes second Indian to score century in U19 final after Unmukt Chand in 2012
- Scored 122 in youth Test on tour of England
- Bought by Delhi Daredevils for base price of two million Indian rupees (Dh115,000) in 2018 IPL auction
TO ALL THE BOYS: ALWAYS AND FOREVER
Directed by: Michael Fimognari
Starring: Lana Condor and Noah Centineo
Two stars
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
Palestine and Israel - live updates
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday Stuttgart v Cologne (Kick-off 10.30pm UAE)
Saturday RB Leipzig v Hertha Berlin (5.30pm)
Mainz v Borussia Monchengladbach (5.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt (5.30pm)
Union Berlin v SC Freiburg (5.30pm)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (5.30pm)
Sunday Wolfsburg v Arminia (6.30pm)
Werder Bremen v Hoffenheim (9pm)
Bayer Leverkusen v Augsburg (11.30pm)
The language of diplomacy in 1853
Treaty of Peace in Perpetuity Agreed Upon by the Chiefs of the Arabian Coast on Behalf of Themselves, Their Heirs and Successors Under the Mediation of the Resident of the Persian Gulf, 1853
(This treaty gave the region the name “Trucial States”.)
We, whose seals are hereunto affixed, Sheikh Sultan bin Suggar, Chief of Rassool-Kheimah, Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon, Chief of Aboo Dhebbee, Sheikh Saeed bin Buyte, Chief of Debay, Sheikh Hamid bin Rashed, Chief of Ejman, Sheikh Abdoola bin Rashed, Chief of Umm-ool-Keiweyn, having experienced for a series of years the benefits and advantages resulting from a maritime truce contracted amongst ourselves under the mediation of the Resident in the Persian Gulf and renewed from time to time up to the present period, and being fully impressed, therefore, with a sense of evil consequence formerly arising, from the prosecution of our feuds at sea, whereby our subjects and dependants were prevented from carrying on the pearl fishery in security, and were exposed to interruption and molestation when passing on their lawful occasions, accordingly, we, as aforesaid have determined, for ourselves, our heirs and successors, to conclude together a lasting and inviolable peace from this time forth in perpetuity.
Taken from Britain and Saudi Arabia, 1925-1939: the Imperial Oasis, by Clive Leatherdale
RESULTS
5pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Purebred Arabian Cup Conditions (PA) Dh 200,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner: Hameem, Adrie de Vries (jockey), Abdallah Al Hammadi (trainer)
5.30pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Cup Conditions (PA) Dh 200,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: Winked, Connor Beasley, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Cup Listed (TB) Dh 380,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: Boerhan, Ryan Curatolo, Nicholas Bachalard
6.30pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Group 3 (PA) Dh 500,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: AF Alwajel, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Jewel Crown Group 1 (PA) Dh 5,000,000 (T) 2,200m
Winner: Messi, Pat Dobbs, Timo Keersmaekers
7.30pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Handicap (PA) Dh 150,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Harrab, Ryan Curatolo, Jean de Roualle
8pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 100,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: AF Alareeq, Connor Beasley, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
