Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Leicester City - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - January 19, 2019 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Diogo Jota celebrates scoring their fourth goal to complete his hat-trick Action Images via Reuters/Craig Brough EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Leicester City - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - January 19, 2019 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Diogo Jota celebrates scoring their fourth goal to complete his hat-trick Action Images via Reuters/Craig Brough EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Leicester City - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - January 19, 2019 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Diogo Jota celebrates scoring their f
The suited man in his early fifties turns heads as he walks behind Molineux’s towering, modern Stan Cullis Stand. Stephen George Bull, the local hero from nearby Tipton, wisely carries a pen. The legendary striker for Wolverhampton Wanderers, with a club record 306 goals and a Black Country accent so strong that a journalist translated his words when he played for England, is obliging as he signs autographs and smiles for selfies before disappearing into the vast structure ahead of a Premier League game.
Promoted to England’s top flight for this season having been hailed as the Championship’s best ever side last term, Wolverhampton Wanderers are unrecognisable from the club Bull joined in 1986. Among the playing ranks these days is Portuguese pass master Ruben Neves, the 21-year-old midfielder who stood out against Manchester United at Old Trafford. His agent and compatriot Jorge Mendes has helped facilitate the rise of the modern day Wolves, but they are more than a chequebook club.
Among Wolves’ best players are Dublin born full-back Matt Doherty, now in his ninth year at the club; while Liverpudlian club captain Conor Coady has changed position from a central midfielder to a Franco Baresi-like sweeper. Raul Jimenez, an on-loan Mexican striker from Benfica, is a tireless worker who provides a forward option in a team lacking them. Joao Moutinho, who, like Neves, once played for Porto, adds class while Morgan Gibbs-White, an 18-year-old local boy who rose through the academy, has become a prominent part of the squad this term.
Wolves looked for local talent in 1986 as well. They had to. They found Bull and fellow new signing from West Bromwich Albion, Andy Thompson. Wolves were skint and their once mighty Molineux home a crumbling, condemned, mess. Between 1984 and 1987, Wolves suffered three successive relegations and ended up in England’s fourth tier. Crowds dropped as low as 3,000.
“Molineux only had two stands open and the changing rooms leaked,” says Thompson. “It was not a nice place, but it was my team and my town.”
That year, the official receiver was called in and the club was only saved when the city council bought the stadium and surrounding land for £1.2 million (Dh5.8m), land which was used for a supermarket under a deal which paid off the club's debts.
Thompson remembers how he came to sign. “Bully drove us down and the manager Graham Turner sold us his vision. He wanted us both. These were bad times and Wolves were down to the hardcore, but in Bully they had a player with a never-say-die attitude who was passionate about his roots. He must have been a nightmare to play against because he always wanted to win. Bully scored 50 goals in two consecutive years.”
Thirty-two years on and Wolves, from a city of 259,000 in England’s West Midlands are, in the words of their fans "on our way back". Twice promoted to the Premier League since, they have been on their way back before, but this time, thanks to shrewd Chinese owners and a talented Portuguese coach, it seems for real.
Wolves have impressed on their return to the Premier League, drawing with both Manchester clubs and Arsenal, then beating Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and knocking Liverpool out of the FA Cup. Better still, they play entertaining football.
Wolves have a history of peaks and troughs that long precede the time of Bull and Thompson. They were a great name of early professional football, yet in 1923 they became the first of the Football League’s 12 founder members to be relegated to England’s third tier.
By the 1950s, up to 30,000 fans could stand on the South Bank, the deepest terrace England has ever seen. The team who played in front of the multi-spanned old gold gables thrilled a generation of 1950s football fans, winning the FA Cup twice and becoming champions of England three times between 1949 and 1960. Manager Stan Cullis made them the best team in the world in the 1950s. Wolves played a series of friendlies against football’s elite before European competitions had been established. Star player Billy Wright was capped 105 times by England. There are pictures and posters testament to Wolves’ magnificent history outside and inside Molineux – its distinctive name taken from the surname of a local 18th century merchant. In a Barcelona art gallery there’s a poster stating "The Wolves shall not pass" ahead of a European game between Wolves and Barca.
Wolves fans are happy seeing their team play attractive football and competing - and winning - against the best the Premier League has to offer. Reuters
Those were the high points. By 1990, the club was rescued again, this time by Jack Hayward, a former regular on the terraces, who paid £2.1m. Hayward then invested £50m of his own money into redeveloping the stadium. Wolves played one season in the Premier League in Haywood’s 17-year tenure.
“Jack Hayward was massive for the club,” says Thompson. “There was interest in buying the ground for building development because it’s located by the city centre, but he developed the whole ground and the area around it. Sir Jack lived in the Caribbean but his roots were here, he was a likeable and lovely man.”
In 2007, Wolves were bought by popular Liverpudlian Steve Morgan for a nominal £10 with Hayward’s proviso that £30m would be invested into the club. There wasn’t much money floating around locally and industrial decline didn’t help: tyre manufacturers Goodyear were synonymous with Wolverhampton for a century before closing their doors in 2017. In 2016, 62 per cent of the local population voted for the United Kingdom to leave the EU in a referendum, 10 per cent above the national average.
Thompson had friends and family, all Wolves fans, who were affected by Goodyear’s closure. “It employed a lot of people but was more than a factory, it was a community. Goodyear had sponsored the Wolves, too, they backed us when things were not so great.”
Wolverhampton – its motto is highly apt: "Out of the darkness cometh light" – is part of the West Midlands urban area, but locals are proud of the subtle differences of their area.
“People call me a Brummie, but I’m not a Brummie," explains Thompson, "because I’m not from the city of Birmingham. In the Black Country we have our own words like bostin’ [meaning brilliant, excellent]."
It’s a football area, too. Duncan Edwards, one of Manchester United’s greatest ever players, who died at Munich, hailed from Dudley in the heart of the Black Country, as did Billy Wright.
The changing room wasn't right and there was a massive disconnect between the fans and the players. The fans felt the players didn't care and it was so bad it was easier to play away from home.
By 2013, Wolves were in England’s third tier and things were bad. Carl Ikeme, a goalkeeper from Birmingham, had joined Wolves when he was 16 and played his entire career as a contracted Wolves player – at least when he wasn’t on one of his nine loan moves – recalls those dark days only too well.
“We had back-to-back relegations and ended up in the third division. It was such a mess that people were saying we could go down a third time. The changing room wasn’t right and there was a massive disconnect between the fans and the players. The fans felt the players didn’t care and it was so bad it was easier to play away from home.
“There was too much pressure there and we were having problems coming out of the stadium at its worst. Fans were protesting because of the results. Leaks were immediately coming out of the changing rooms that shouldn’t have been. But we made that first step back with promotion and got the fans back onside. You need the connection between the fans and the players.”
The improvements have taken time.
“The first team were in the Premier League [in 2003]”, says Ikeme, “yet we were still getting changed in portacabins. It was difficult to attract players until we built the new training ground, but now the club is fully geared for the Premier League. The infrastructure has been improved and the support is there – it’s a proudly working-class, one-club city where you can’t get away from Wolves.”
That can be a blessing and a curse when you play for Wolves but Ikeme is glad that the connection with fans “came back and has stayed back".
The takeover by Fosun – a Chinese conglomerate and investment company, which bought Wolves for £30m from Morgan in 2016 – was a major reason, but not everyone was happy with it at the time.
"Their arrival was greeted with a mixture of suspicion and intrigue," explains Dave Harrison, a veteran football journalist in England and author of Nuno Had a Dream. "There had been foreign owners before in the form of the Bhatti Brothers who ran the club into the ground in the 1980s. Initial inquiries revealed that Fosun were a global company of genuine wealth. Its chairman Guo Guangchang has an estimated personal fortune of $7.3 billion. They arrived in Wolverhampton insisting that they wanted to restore Wolves to the pinnacle of European football but that early intent proved to be hollow.
"They replaced popular manager Kenny Jackett with former Italian goalkeeper Walter Zenga, whose managerial past was chequered. He lasted 87 days and Wolves slid towards the relegation zone with four wins from 18 games. Zenga was replaced by Paul Lambert who, at least, provided a relatively safe pair of hands and steered Wolves away from the bottom. He went at the end of the season and in came Nuno. The revolution was about to begin."
Ian Cathro, a 32-year-old Scot, joined as first team coach in 2018, having worked with Nuno at Rio Ave and in Valencia.
“Wolves is one of the few clubs in England with a real history of success,” said Cathro, who was also assistant manager at Newcastle United and manager of Heart of Midlothian. “It’s worth spending time in the club museum, it really captures your attention.
“Wolverhampton really comes to life when there’s a home game, you can feel it around the place and it makes a reasonably quiet English city feel much bigger. Wolves gives it life.”
Nuno Espirito Santo was named Wolves manager in May 2017. In his first season in charge, Wolves romped to the Championship title. Reuters
Cathro is privy to the inner workings of how Wolves play.
“We have young, hungry, talented players working under one of the best coaches in Europe. We have a style which is to build a way of playing which allows players to be consistent and to improve things day by day. We want to have control in the game. Sometimes you can do that with the ball, other times you can be able to do it without the ball. You need the quality to have possession, to score from organised play and counter attacks. We have to be able to compete in every game we play. Last season people recognised that – I could see as an outsider that fans felt there was a bond and something to trust. Credit to Nuno and his staff for that.”
But what does Nuno do well?
“He’s got a good football philosophy and brain which he implements in a simple manner to the players,” explains Ikeme. “I wondered why he brought so many staff with him when he arrived and if I’m honest I was disappointed because a lot of friends and colleagues lost their jobs, but I can see now how it all fits together. He’s demanding, very hands on and has the balance between the players liking him and respecting him. He’s taken the club to a different level and Wolves are very difficult to play against.”
“He’s a natural leader always sees the whole picture,” adds Cathro. “He has the conviction and instincts to lead the group by knowing what they need. He has a global understanding of his football. He knows that every team has a weak as well as a strong point. Football is always interesting, but he has a deep understanding of football, of the problems we might face and he’s good at coming up with solutions. He has a clear way of working so we can continue to improve. He doesn’t chop and change. The idea is to build something that will last, that can be developed, invested in and grown, that can allow the players to deeply understand what their role is.”
Wolves are eighth in their first season back up. Are they happy with that?
“It’s more important to look at the journey that the players have been on,” says Cathro. “It was very new at the start of the season, with only two or three players with Premier League experience. We’ve had different stages. We managed to settle ourselves well at the start, with everyone looking to get comfortable. Then we had our work validated by some positive results. We’ve had massive highs and felt genuine pressure when we’ve been going six games without a win. We’ve grown and improved throughout the season and that’s the important thing in a very difficult league. Every game has its own story. Top teams don’t adapt so much to a newly promoted team like a smaller team might do. We’ve gone to play against some of the top teams in Europe, but we’ve seen that teams have made changes when they’ve played us – which is a matter of respect. This group is capable of continuing to grow as part of a really ambitious project, while still suffering from some knock backs.”
We saw potential in a historic club, a sleeping giant with a big fan base; we thought that promotion to the Premier League was realistic. We wanted to wake that giant
The coaches know they have to deliver for their demanding, ambitious owners. Thompson thinks the combination is working.
“It has taken the owners time to get the right manager, but I think they have it with Nuno,” Cathro says. “He was a breath of fresh air, though people did frown a little at the start because of the way he wanted to play with more of a passing game. Yet he’s transformed some players into different positions – Conor Coady has been a revelation moving to a sweeper. Nuno’s philosophy has proved right and he’s continued it in the Premier League. We’ve come unstuck a few times, but that’s part of the learning curve. There’s a buzz back at the club, every game is sold out and last year was the first time in all my years in football that I didn’t hear any criticism of the manager.
"The Chinese owners want to promote Wolves globally and the club have come on a long way.”
Jeff Shi is the chairman of Wolves and part of the Fosun group.
“We were looking to invest in a football club and talked with clubs in Spain, Italy and Portugal,” explains Shi. “We settled on Wolves, who we considered to be a good fit. Wolves were in the Championship and much cheaper than a Premier League club. We saw potential in a historic club, a sleeping giant with a big fan base; we thought that promotion to the Premier League was realistic. We wanted to wake that giant.”
Are the owners in it for the long run?
“In 2016 I was just an investor who lived in Shanghai, my home city. I came to Wolves three or four times and the club didn’t do well [Wolves finished 15th, seven points clear of relegation back to the third tier].
“I thought it was better for me to move to Wolverhampton to be able to make quick decisions, to watch training and all the games. It was exciting to experience a new country and city at the age of 40, but promotion to the Premier League was the highlight of my time at Wolverhampton.
“Wolverhampton is very different from Shanghai, it’s smaller and quiet and green. The food and shopping are better in Shanghai, but the air is cleaner here, the traffic less. The important thing is that I like football. I’ve watched it since I was a child when I watched Serie A. Gradually, the Premier League became the most popular league in the world, but being a fan is totally different from being inside a club. Football is my career now and I think about the club and the industry every day.”
What is the aim for Wolves’ owners?
“Long term, we want to be one of the best clubs in the world,” says Shi. “We want to be top four, top six in the Premier League. We want to compete in the Champions League. I want us to win the Premier League in five-to-ten years, but our aim for this season is to stay in the Premier League and then climb up the table next year. We have a young squad but we want to recruit and develop better players. Football is changing because of the Financial Fair Play and the television in the Premier League. Every club has money now.
“Financial Fair Play is the right thing to do, but it’s about profit and loss. Sometimes it’s not fair on the new teams because they don’t have the same size fan base as big as the biggest clubs. They can’t generate the same revenues from sponsorship to invest in their team. It’s not always the best for ambitious owners who want to invest in the team. We’re a new team who wants to challenge the big six, but they have a form of protection [with FFP] and it’s hard to do that at the moment. So we have to be smarter, we have to find better young players.”
Wolverhampton Wanderers' Helder Costa celebrates with Matt Doherty and Morgan Gibbs-White after scoring their third goal in a 3-1 win against Tottenham in December. Reuters
Wolves – and every Premier League team – benefits from TV riches. The global popularity of the league also means that it's no longer essential for clubs to be from large metropolitan areas where the vast fan bases can provide the highest attendances since match day revenues are less important to club revenues.
“It might be different from basketball where the city size can be important to a team, but football is global,” says Shi. “The majority of the fans who follow Premier League teams are not from the city where the clubs play. They don't care about the size of the city. The majority of the revenue now comes from sponsorship and TV rights. Wolves can become a global club with a global fan base, but we do also need a bigger stadium capacity.”
Molineux, which holds 32,000 and is the 20th biggest football stadium in England, was rebuilt between 1979-1995. It’s fit for Premier League football and the smart new Cullis stand was added in 2012 as Morgan invested into the club. But Shi is confident that the stadium can be expanded towards a “40 or 50,000” capacity.
There are more pressing matters for now.
“We needed to define the philosophy for our first team and how we play,” explains the chairman. “We need to know the demand and profile of every player we are looking to recruit. We speak a lot with Nuno, our head coach and also with our sporting director. Players don’t need to be famous or even expensive, they need to fit our philosophy and identity which will run from our academy to the first team.”
Barcelona did this, Ajax and Manchester United too. A player at nine should play in the same style as a player in the first team, but changes in manager can alter that. Jose Mourinho’s philosophy was very different from Alex Ferguson’s, but in Nuno Espirito Santo and his staff, Wolves’ style has been widely praised.
“His style was revolutionary,” explains David Harrison. “Nuno is the best thing to happen to Wolves for the best part of five decades. For those fans who didn’t share the glories of the 50s, 60s and part of the 70s, he has brought a style and substance to the team which has never before been witnessed.
“Leaving aside the football, he has engaged with the fans with his passion, which, admittedly, has sometimes been over the top and landed him in trouble with referees. He talks repeatedly of being part of 'The Pack' – which is usually followed by the phrase 'together we are stronger'.
“Nuno totally reshaped the club with his philosophy and football beliefs,” adds Harrison. “Ruben Neves is the standout. At 21 he is a mature midfielder with a vast array of skills – superb range of passing, work-rate and an eye for goal. He scored six goals last season, all of them long range efforts, including a stunning volley against Derby which is still being talked about. He cost £15.8 million – a club record at the time – but is already being valued at £50-60 million.”
Portuguese midfielder Ruben Neves has been one of the star acquisitions of Nuno's reign. EPA
Other players have had to settle in. When Helder Costa, then Wolves’ £13m record signing arrived, Ikeme had his doubts. “You could tell he was good but it was that typical English attitude of worrying whether he’d be game for it when he got kicked. He quickly proved me wrong and nobody could touch him in training. He’s still doing it now in the Premier League.”
It’s a shame Ikeme can’t play with them. In 2017 he was diagnosed with acute leukaemia after routine blood tests pre-season. A year later and in remission, he retired from football. He still watches Wolves and is spearheading a donor drive for blood cancer.
“There’s a problem with ethnic diversity,” explains the former Nigerian international beneath Molineux’s main stand. “We don’t get enough blood donors from ethnic minorities, but we’ve got about 50-100 signed up this week.”
A football club is far more than a football team, but as the team has grown, the club has looked to raise their profile.
Russell Jones, the club’s head of marketing outlines Wolves’ strategy: “We’ve prioritised markets and looked at China because of our ownership group. It’s an enormous country but we will prioritise tier two cities. We’re also looking at markets where we have players like Mexico for Raul.”
Different markets for different fans.
“People from Wolverhampton are quite self-deprecating,” says Jones. “They’re honest and very proud of their city, a football city where the football club comes first. The football club is hugely important to the local economy and the City Council appreciate that the club who carries the city’s name are in the Premier League. They’ve been very supportive.”
Bottom-of-the-league Huddersfield Town are the visitors in late November when The National visit Molineux and Wulfrunians are confident of victory. Just 16 games into the season, Wolves had won six, more than they managed in the whole of their last top-flight campaign in 2011/12. There's much good about what this club are doing, from a child-specific match day programme to community engagement. A flag behind one goal reads "The strength of the wolf is in the pack", words Nuno would approve of.
But Wolves lose. And they lose the following game against another struggling side, Cardiff City. They follow that up with an unexpected win against Chelsea 2-1 and then beat Spurs away later in December. Wolves have now beaten or taken points off every team in the top six this season.
They never did do things the easy way in Wolverhampton, but they have impressed again this season and their future is bright.
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah 5.10pm: Continous 5.45pm: Raging Torrent 6.20pm: West Acre 7pm: Flood Zone 7.40pm: Straight No Chaser 8.15pm: Romantic Warrior 8.50pm: Calandogan 9.30pm: Forever Young
Meatless Days
Sara Suleri, with an introduction by Kamila Shamsie
Penguin
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, AB Accelerator, 500 Startups, private backers
The Dictionary of Animal Languages
Heidi Sopinka
Scribe
MATCH INFO
Manchester City 4 (Gundogan 8' (P), Bernardo Silva 19', Jesus 72', 75')
Fulham 0
Red cards: Tim Ream (Fulham)
Man of the Match: Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City)
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
PAKISTAN SQUAD
Pakistan - Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Azhar Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez, Haris Sohail, Faheem Ashraf, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Aamer Yamin, Rumman Raees.
THE BIO:
Sabri Razouk, 74
Athlete and fitness trainer
Married, father of six
Favourite exercise: Bench press
Must-eat weekly meal: Steak with beans, carrots, broccoli, crust and corn
Power drink: A glass of yoghurt
Role model: Any good man
SQUADS
South Africa:
JP Duminy (capt), Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wkt), AB de Villiers, Robbie Frylinck, Beuran Hendricks, David Miller, Mangaliso Mosehle (wkt), Dane Paterson, Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Tabraiz Shamsi
Bangladesh
Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Imrul Kayes, Liton Das (wkt), Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim (wkt), Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Soumya Sarkar, Taskin Ahmed
Fixtures
Oct 26: Bloemfontein
Oct 29: Potchefstroom
How Alia's experiment will help humans get to Mars
Alia’s winning experiment examined how genes might change under the stresses caused by being in space, such as cosmic radiation and microgravity.
Her samples were placed in a machine on board the International Space Station. called a miniPCR thermal cycler, which can copy DNA multiple times.
After the samples were examined on return to Earth, scientists were able to successfully detect changes caused by being in space in the way DNA transmits instructions through proteins and other molecules in living organisms.
Although Alia’s samples were taken from nematode worms, the results have much bigger long term applications, especially for human space flight and long term missions, such as to Mars.
It also means that the first DNA experiments using human genomes can now be carried out on the ISS.
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors Power: 659hp Torque: 1075Nm On sale: Available for pre-order now Price: On request
Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.
Pakistan: Sarfraz Ahmed (c), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Hussain Talat, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan Shinwari, Hassan Ali, Imad Wasim, Waqas Maqsood, Faheem Ashraf.
THE BIO
Occupation: Specialised chief medical laboratory technologist
Age: 78
Favourite destination: Always Al Ain “Dar Al Zain”
Hobbies: his work - “ the thing which I am most passionate for and which occupied all my time in the morning and evening from 1963 to 2019”
Other hobbies: football
Favorite football club: Al Ain Sports Club
Score
Third Test, Day 1
New Zealand 229-7 (90 ov)
Pakistan
New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
Welterweight Mostafa Radi (PAL) v Tohir Zhuraev (TJK)
Catchweight 75kg Leandro Martins (BRA) v Anas Siraj Mounir (MAR)
Flyweight Corinne Laframboise (CAN) v Manon Fiorot (FRA)
Featherweight Ahmed Al Darmaki (UAE) v Bogdan Kirilenko (UZB)
Lightweight Izzedine Al Derabani (JOR) v Atabek Abdimitalipov (KYG)
Featherweight Yousef Al Housani (UAE) v Mohamed Arsharq Ali (SLA)
Catchweight 69kg Jung Han-gook (KOR) v Elias Boudegzdame (ALG)
Catchweight 71kg Usman Nurmagomedov (RUS) v Jerry Kvarnstrom (FIN)
Featherweight title Lee Do-gyeom (KOR) v Alexandru Chitoran (ROU)
Lightweight title Bruno Machado (BRA) v Mike Santiago (USA)
The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Profile of Tamatem
Date started: March 2013
Founder: Hussam Hammo
Based: Amman, Jordan
Employees: 55
Funding: $6m
Funders: Wamda Capital, Modern Electronics (part of Al Falaisah Group) and North Base Media
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Grubtech
Founders: Mohamed Al Fayed and Mohammed Hammedi
Launched: October 2019
Employees: 50
Financing stage: Seed round (raised $2 million)
The specs
Engine: 0.8-litre four cylinder
Power: 70bhp
Torque: 66Nm
Transmission: four-speed manual
Price: $1,075 new in 1967, now valued at $40,000
On sale: Models from 1966 to 1970
MATCH INFO
Borussia Dortmund 0
Bayern Munich 1 (Kimmich 43')
Man of the match: Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
RESULTS
5pm Wathba Stallions Cup Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner Munfared, Fernando Jara (jockey), Ahmed Al Mehairbi (trainer)
5.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Sawt Assalam, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
6pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Dergham Athbah, Pat Dobbs, Mohamed Daggash
6.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Rajee, Fernando Jara, Majed Al Jahouri
7pm Conditions (PA) Dh80,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Kerless Del Roc, Fernando Jara, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner Pharoah King, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
8pm Conditions (PA) Dh85,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner Sauternes Al Maury, Dane O’Neill, Doug Watson
Obed Suhail of ServiceMarket, an online home services marketplace, outlines the five types of long-term residential visas:
Investors:
A 10-year residency visa can be obtained by investors who invest Dh10 million, out of which 60 per cent should not be in real estate. It can be a public investment through a deposit or in a business. Those who invest Dh5 million or more in property are eligible for a five-year residency visa. The invested amount should be completely owned by the investors, not loaned, and retained for at least three years.
Entrepreneurs:
A five-year multiple entry visa is available to entrepreneurs with a previous project worth Dh0.5m or those with the approval of an accredited business incubator in the UAE.
Specialists
Expats with specialised talents, including doctors, specialists, scientists, inventors, and creative individuals working in the field of culture and art are eligible for a 10-year visa, given that they have a valid employment contract in one of these fields in the country.
Outstanding students:
A five-year visa will be granted to outstanding students who have a grade of 95 per cent or higher in a secondary school, or those who graduate with a GPA of 3.75 from a university.
Retirees:
Expats who are at least 55 years old can obtain a five-year retirement visa if they invest Dh2m in property, have savings of Dh1m or more, or have a monthly income of at least Dh20,000.
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.
Red flags
Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
Adapt your business model. Make changes that are future-proof to the new normal
Make sure you have an online presence
Open communication with suppliers, especially if they are international. Look for local suppliers to avoid delivery delays
Open communication with customers to see how they are coping and be flexible about extending terms, etc
Courtesy: Craig Moore, founder and CEO of Beehive, which provides term finance and working capital finance to SMEs. Only SMEs that have been trading for two years are eligible for funding from Beehive.
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
Golden Shoe top five (as of March 1):
Harry Kane, Tottenham, Premier League, 24 goals, 48 points
Edinson Cavani, PSG, Ligue 1, 24 goals, 48 points
Ciro Immobile, Lazio, Serie A, 23 goals, 46 points
Mohamed Salah, Liverpool, Premier League, 23 goals, 46 points
Lionel Messi, Barcelona, La Liga, 22 goals, 44 points
West Indies: Holder (c), Ambris, Bishoo, Brathwaite, Chase, Dowrich (wk), Gabriel, Hamilton, Hetmyer, Hope, Lewis, Paul, Powell, Roach, Warrican, Joseph
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
Citizenship-by-investment programmes
United Kingdom
The UK offers three programmes for residency. The UK Overseas Business Representative Visa lets you open an overseas branch office of your existing company in the country at no extra investment. For the UK Tier 1 Innovator Visa, you are required to invest £50,000 (Dh238,000) into a business. You can also get a UK Tier 1 Investor Visa if you invest £2 million, £5m or £10m (the higher the investment, the sooner you obtain your permanent residency).
All UK residency visas get approved in 90 to 120 days and are valid for 3 years. After 3 years, the applicant can apply for extension of another 2 years. Once they have lived in the UK for a minimum of 6 months every year, they are eligible to apply for permanent residency (called Indefinite Leave to Remain). After one year of ILR, the applicant can apply for UK passport.
The Caribbean
Depending on the country, the investment amount starts from $100,000 (Dh367,250) and can go up to $400,000 in real estate. From the date of purchase, it will take between four to five months to receive a passport.
Portugal
The investment amount ranges from €350,000 to €500,000 (Dh1.5m to Dh2.16m) in real estate. From the date of purchase, it will take a maximum of six months to receive a Golden Visa. Applicants can apply for permanent residency after five years and Portuguese citizenship after six years.
“Among European countries with residency programmes, Portugal has been the most popular because it offers the most cost-effective programme to eventually acquire citizenship of the European Union without ever residing in Portugal,” states Veronica Cotdemiey of Citizenship Invest.
Greece
The real estate investment threshold to acquire residency for Greece is €250,000, making it the cheapest real estate residency visa scheme in Europe. You can apply for residency in four months and citizenship after seven years.
Spain
The real estate investment threshold to acquire residency for Spain is €500,000. You can apply for permanent residency after five years and citizenship after 10 years. It is not necessary to live in Spain to retain and renew the residency visa permit.
Cyprus
Cyprus offers the quickest route to citizenship of a European country in only six months. An investment of €2m in real estate is required, making it the highest priced programme in Europe.
Malta
The Malta citizenship by investment programme is lengthy and investors are required to contribute sums as donations to the Maltese government. The applicant must either contribute at least €650,000 to the National Development & Social Fund. Spouses and children are required to contribute €25,000; unmarried children between 18 and 25 and dependent parents must contribute €50,000 each.
The second step is to make an investment in property of at least €350,000 or enter a property rental contract for at least €16,000 per annum for five years. The third step is to invest at least €150,000 in bonds or shares approved by the Maltese government to be kept for at least five years.
Candidates must commit to a minimum physical presence in Malta before citizenship is granted. While you get residency in two months, you can apply for citizenship after a year.
Egypt
A one-year residency permit can be bought if you purchase property in Egypt worth $100,000. A three-year residency is available for those who invest $200,000 in property, and five years for those who purchase property worth $400,000.
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre Power: 150hp Torque: 250Nm Price: From Dh139,000 On sale: Now
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.”
Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
Based: UAE
Sector: Finance / legal
Size: 3 employees, pre-revenue
Stage: Early stage
Investors: Founder's friends and Family
