Chelsea striker Diego Costa could be banned for three matches following his red card at Everton.
The striker has no case to answer over speculation he bit Gareth Barry during Saturday's FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Goodison Park. The Everton midfielder insisted Costa had not bitten him after their altercation, during which Costa nuzzled his mouth into Barry's neck.
But the Football Association has charged Costa with misconduct for his reaction to his 84th-minute dismissal by referee Michael Oliver. And the FA is still investigating an alleged gesture made by Costa and aimed at Everton supporters.
Read more: Everton's Romelu Lukaku scores twice against former team Chelsea while Diego Costa is sent off
Read also: Everton's Gareth Barry confirms he was not bitten by Chelsea's Diego Costa during FA Cup clash
Costa is already suspended automatically for his first red card as a Chelsea player and will miss Saturday’s Premier League clash with West Ham. Two additional and separate one-match bans could follow.
He has until Thursday at 6pm to respond to the misconduct charge and if found guilty could be given a one-match ban.
The Spain striker has also been given until 6pm on Wednesday to explain an alleged gesture towards Everton fans at half-time of the match, which Chelsea lost 2-0. A charge, and a one-match ban, could follow.
A statement from the FA on Monday evening read: “Diego Costa has been charged in relation to Chelsea’s FA Cup Sixth Round fixture against Everton on Saturday, March 12, 2016.
“It is alleged his behaviour, after being shown a second yellow card in the game, amounted to improper conduct.
“He has until 6pm on March 17, 2016 to respond to the charge.
“Meanwhile, the Chelsea striker has until Wednesday (March 16, 2016) to provide his observations to The FA in relation to an alleged gesture he made towards Everton supporters while leaving the pitch at half-time.”
Costa was sent off six minutes from time and Barry followed three minutes later for a second yellow card. He will miss Everton’s game with Arsenal on Saturday.
Chelsea coach Guus Hiddink, who said his player had been “chased” during the game, later joked that he should take Costa to watch the film “Anger Management” after a catalogue of incidents since his £32million arrival at Stamford Bridge during the summer of 2014.
Costa is no stranger to controversy and has a reputation for antagonising opponents. He collected his 10th Chelsea yellow card of the season before seeing red.
He has twice been handed three-match retrospective bans by the FA. The first came after he was adjudged to have deliberately trodden on the ankle of Liverpool’s Emre Can during a Capital One Cup semi-final in January 2015.
And the second three-match suspension followed an altercation with Laurent Koscielny in a Premier League defeat of Arsenal last September.
Costa is in his second season at Chelsea and is again reportedly agitating for a return to Atletico Madrid.
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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.”
Funk Wav Bounces Vol.1
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