Four Premier League teams fell in the third round of the FA Cup yesterday, with the majority of the top division's biggest teams yet to play their ties.
Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham are all in action today, while Arsenal had a scare, drawing 1-1 at home to Leeds United.
But football's romantics were reminded that Cup upsets can still happen, with Sunderland, Newcastle United, West Bromwich Albion and Blackpool all losing to lower-league opposition while Wolverhampton Wanderers and Stoke City were taken to replays by Championship sides Doncaster Rovers and Cardiff City.
Perhaps the biggest shocks were Newcastle's 3-1 away defeat by Stevenage Borough, who joined League Two, the fourth tier of English football, for the first time this season, and Sunderland's 2-1 home defeat to Notts County, who are 16th in League One.
West Brom's elimination came after the Reading striker Shane Long netted before the Baggies had Jonas Olsson sent off for a second bookable offense.
Lee Barnard and Guly do Prado got the goals for Southampton that sent a weakened Blackpool side out of the competition with a 2-0 win.
Meanwhile, Neil Warnock, manager of Queens Park Rangers, who are top of the Championship, launched a personal attack on Blackburn's El-Hadji Diouf after claiming the Senegal international abused Jamie Mackie while he lay on the pitch with a broken leg.
Mackie sustained a double fracture in a 50-50 clash with Gael Givet which saw both players carried off on stretchers in Blackburn's 1-0 victory at Ewood Park.
Warnock alleged that Diouf, no stranger to controversy during his career in England, had taunted his injured player despite the seriousness of the injury being apparent.
"He's broken both bones, his tibia and his fibula, and he's gone to hospital but will travel home with us," Warnock said.
"The lads were furious with El- Hadji Diouf; he (Mackie) had broken his leg and he is calling him all sorts on the pitch. There was no need to put the finger up and call him a disgrace and even the Blackburn people were embarrassed.
"For many years I have thought he [Diouf] was the gutter type. I was going to call him a sewer rat but that might be insulting to sewer rats.
"I think he is the lowest of the low and I can't see him being at Blackburn much longer because I can't see Steve Kean (Blackburn's manager) putting up with someone like that in the dressing room. I think he will be the first to go and good riddance. I hope he goes abroad because I won't miss watching him. He is a nasty little person."
No non-league teams made it through to the fourth round. Hereford United are the lowest-ranked club left in the competition. They are bottom of League Two, the fourth tier, but won a 4-3 thriller at Lincoln City, one place above them in the league, to progress.
Torquay United, 1-0 winners against Carlisle, and Burton Albion, who scored in the last minute to beat Championship Middlesbrough, are the other League Two survivors.
The draw for the fourth round will be made at 7.45pm today.
* With agencies
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.”
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Greenwood 77')
Everton 1 (Lindelof 36' og)
Scoreline:
Cardiff City 0
Liverpool 2
Wijnaldum 57', Milner 81' (pen)
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Stars: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jessica Henwick
Rating:****
TWISTERS
Director:+Lee+Isaac+Chung
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
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Date started: March 2023
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Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000
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