The Saudi Prince who has helped lead Sheffield United to the top half of the Premier League has called for reform of the “ridiculous” VAR system and for the English League Cup to be scrapped.
Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz, who bought a stake in the Yorkshire side in 2013, also pledged not to overspend on transfer fees and wages despite his club’s surprise success this season, their first in England’s top flight in more than a decade.
Sheffield United were one of the favourites for relegation last summer, but are currently seventh in the table, ahead of the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.
While the club’s impressive form has been one of the stories of the season, it has also been dominated by controversy around the introduction of the VAR system, with Sheffield United among the sides who feel they have been on the receiving end of bad calls most often by the video referees’ rulings.
Prince Abdullah added his voice to those of fans and commentators who have criticised the practice of ruling out goals for marginal offsides, saying that while VAR is “here to stay”, its application needed to be reexamined.
“It is ridiculous now,” he said. “Before VAR maybe you would have five bad calls a game. Now, if you can get two, that’s a victory. But we have to find a way to make it efficient. If you can’t see it is offside with the naked eye, I think we should let it go. I think VAR has to be improved.”
On the issue of fixture congestion, the 54-year-old said that "too many games" were played in English football. He suggested that the League Cup, England's second club cup competition, would not be missed.
“I think maybe we can do without the Carabao Cup,” he said. “I predict the next World Cup [in Qatar in 2022] will be the best ever, because it is taking place in the winter, when players are still at their peak. For me, the Premier League is the best, but we have too many games, it is exhausting.”
In a wide-ranging conversation at the Leaders in Sport conference in Abu Dhabi, the multi-millionaire opened up about his passion for sport, saying he remembered fixture lists better than his own children's birthdays.
Sheffield United’s performances since August have effectively secured a second lucrative season in the world’s richest league, meaning another windfall of more than £100 million (Dh478m).
However, Prince Abdullah repeatedly said he would continue to run the club “responsibly” by looking to balance a squad with young players brought through the youth system with more highly-paid stars.
“Otherwise you will run a loss - and nobody wants that,” he said. “So it is always important to have people around you who will find a balance.
“Our philosophy is to invest in clubs that have good academies, improve academies, and give a chance to academy players. Big clubs, Manchester City and Liverpool, they always have to buy stars, and that’s a very expensive model. When you have a chance to have an [academy] player, it makes it much more efficient.
“The best managed clubs financially are the most successful in the world. I think when you own a sports club, the most important thing is to run it responsibly, not to overspend. You have to run a healthy institution.”
The Prince, a grandson of modern Saudi Arabia founder King Abdulaziz, said he had decided to follow his passion for sport following his success in the paper tissue business.
He said he could not afford a Premier League side and considered purchasing QPR, Leeds United and Cardiff City, before deciding on a 50 per cent stake in Sheffield United.
Then, the club was languishing in the third tier of English football but he said had been attracted to it after learning of its history, the passion of its supporters and Sheffield’s industrial heritage.
After becoming co-owner, he said Sheffield United would be back in the Premier League within five years. In the end, it would take six.
“That took a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of effort, but also some luck,” he said. “I think without luck in sports it’s difficult to achieve success.
“It is not like owning a paper company or any other business. The club belongs to the fans, it affects the mood of the city, so you have to be responsible managing the club. Profit cannot be your only concern or worry, you have to think about making the team better and making the city proud.”
Last year, Prince Abdullah won a court battle to take full control of Sheffield United, following a fall out with Kevin McCabe, previously the other co-owner.
He spoke in Abu Dhabi only hours before it was confirmed that the UK courts had thrown out an appeal from McCabe, putting to an end uncertainty over the club's ownership.
He praised the role of manager Chris Wilder in Sheffield United's success, saying the club was "very lucky" to have him, but predicted the rest of this season and next season would be more difficult.
“The clubs that are very successful, they are clubs that are bigger than any coach, any president, any owner, any player,” he said. “We want Sheffield United to reflect that.
“We are very proud but the one thing I know about sports is that it is a very competitive industry. You always have to grow and it’s always a challenge to improve or even stay at the same level. I think the rest of this year and next year will be more difficult, but we will be ready, we are working hard.”
Speaking about his passion for sport, he revealed that he remembered the birthday of only one of his seven children – because it coincided with a famous victory for the San Francisco 49ers, his favourite American football team.
He refuses to travel on Saturdays or Sundays so that he can watch Premier League fixtures, often taking in two matches at the same time on different screens.
During his talk, he mistakenly called the film Jerry Maguire, the 1996 romantic comedy starring Tom Cruise which an early speaker had made reference to, Harry Maguire, the Manchester United and England defender.
“When I am in Los Angeles the first [Premier League] game starts at 4.30am,” he said. “I don’t need an alarm to wake up. I wake up at 2.30am, I go back to sleep, I wake up again, and by 3.30am I am all awake, ready to watch the game. It is always the happiest day of the week."
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Tips for used car buyers
- Choose cars with GCC specifications
- Get a service history for cars less than five years old
- Don’t go cheap on the inspection
- Check for oil leaks
- Do a Google search on the standard problems for your car model
- Do your due diligence. Get a transfer of ownership done at an official RTA centre
- Check the vehicle’s condition. You don’t want to buy a car that’s a good deal but ends up costing you Dh10,000 in repairs every month
- Validate warranty and service contracts with the relevant agency and and make sure they are valid when ownership is transferred
- If you are planning to sell the car soon, buy one with a good resale value. The two most popular cars in the UAE are black or white in colour and other colours are harder to sell
Tarek Kabrit, chief executive of Seez, and Imad Hammad, chief executive and co-founder of CarSwitch.com
The lowdown
Badla
Rating: 2.5/5
Produced by: Red Chillies, Azure Entertainment
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh, Tony Luke
Museum of the Future in numbers
- 78 metres is the height of the museum
- 30,000 square metres is its total area
- 17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
- 14 kilometres is the length of LED lights used on the facade
- 1,024 individual pieces make up the exterior
- 7 floors in all, with one for administrative offices
- 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members frame the torus shape
- 100 species of trees and plants dot the gardens
- Dh145 is the price of a ticket
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.”
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Seven%20Winters%20in%20Tehran
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Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
BULKWHIZ PROFILE
Date started: February 2017
Founders: Amira Rashad (CEO), Yusuf Saber (CTO), Mahmoud Sayedahmed (adviser), Reda Bouraoui (adviser)
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce
Size: 50 employees
Funding: approximately $6m
Investors: Beco Capital, Enabling Future and Wain in the UAE; China's MSA Capital; 500 Startups; Faith Capital and Savour Ventures in Kuwait
Company%20profile
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'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
Match info
Newcastle United 1
Joselu (11')
Tottenham Hotspur 2
Vertonghen (8'), Alli (18')
What is a Ponzi scheme?
A fraudulent investment operation where the scammer provides fake reports and generates returns for old investors through money paid by new investors, rather than through ligitimate business activities.
if you go
The flights
Direct flights from the UAE to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, are available with Air Arabia, (www.airarabia.com) Fly Dubai (www.flydubai.com) or Etihad (www.etihad.com) from Dh1,200 return including taxes. The trek described here started from Jomson, but there are many other start and end point variations depending on how you tailor your trek. To get to Jomson from Kathmandu you must first fly to the lake-side resort town of Pokhara with either Buddha Air (www.buddhaair.com) or Yeti Airlines (www.yetiairlines.com). Both charge around US$240 (Dh880) return. From Pokhara there are early morning flights to Jomson with Yeti Airlines or Simrik Airlines (www.simrikairlines.com) for around US$220 (Dh800) return.
The trek
Restricted area permits (US$500 per person) are required for trekking in the Upper Mustang area. The challenging Meso Kanto pass between Tilcho Lake and Jomson should not be attempted by those without a lot of mountain experience and a good support team. An excellent trekking company with good knowledge of Upper Mustang, the Annaurpuna Circuit and Tilcho Lake area and who can help organise a version of the trek described here is the Nepal-UK run Snow Cat Travel (www.snowcattravel.com). Prices vary widely depending on accommodation types and the level of assistance required.
More on animal trafficking
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
The specs: 2019 BMW X4
Price, base / as tested: Dh276,675 / Dh346,800
Engine: 3.0-litre turbocharged in-line six-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 354hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 1,550rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.0L / 100km
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