French strike a divided pose

Despite beleaguered coach Raymond Domenech claiming otherwise, France's result on Saturday versus the Faroe Islands should be a formality against an island nation whose entire population could occupy two seats each and still not fill the Stade de France. The Faroes are bottom of Group 7 in the European section of World Cup qualifying, but were only beaten 1-0 at home in their capital Torshaven by the stumbling French. They always punch above their diminutive weight, avoiding the thrashings meted out to far larger "small" nations.

It is at the top end of the group where the real interest lies. Group favourites France are second, four points behind Serbia with two games to play. France meet the Faroes and then Austria at home on Wednesday, with anything less than six points calamitous, but there is a sense that the damage has already been inflicted by drawing three and losing one of their eight group games so far. Serbia, competing for a first time in this competition after separating from Montenegro last year, greet their struggling neighbours Romania in Belgrade and then travel to a poor Lithuania side needing just two points from two games. The Serbs would progress even if the French managed the same points, such is their superior goal difference because of France's poor goalscoring form, leaving the 1998 world champions to go through a risky play-off game.

Not even the humorous headlines generated by the release of a love song dedicated to him by a renowned French adult actress has shifted the pressure on Domenech, who is part pitied, part seen as a figure of fun. France have scored just 10 goals from eight qualifying games and have failed to score more than once in their last five qualifiers. Domenech claimed that Group 7 "would not be straightforward, with tricky away games" before a ball had been kicked, but with a squad packed with world-class talent, Les Bleus were still clear favourites.

France have been failed by their forwards. Domenech has picked Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Andre-Pierre Gignac (Toulouse), Sidney Govou (Lyon) and Thierry Henry (Barcelona) for the next two games. Benzema and Gignac are just 20, yet the former plays for Real Madrid and has already passed the 20-cap mark. His class and that of his strike partners can not be doubted, yet all is not well within the French ranks.

Henry, France's all time leading scorer with 49 goals, has been a public critic of his coach, most recently for the way in which Chelsea's Florent Malouda found out that he was not even among the substitutes for the recent qualif-ier against Romania. He walked in the dressing room and saw there was no shirt for him. The strong feeling that Domenech has lost the support of key players refuses to go away, a feeling borne out by poor results, despite subsequent statements from Henry and Domenech to say that all was well in France's camp.

France's draw with Romania is chiefly attributed to the baffling system which Domenech uses by often playing just one striker and three attacking midfielders behind. Henry is not a fan of the system, yet Domenech said: "With 'Titi' [Henry], we can use him anywhere, except as a right wing, where even he doesn't feel comfortable." Henry much prefers the central role. He accepts that he seldom plays there for Barcelona, but expects it as France's most decorated player. It is revealing that France's top scorer in the qualifiers is not even an established striker but Franck Ribery.

Not that this has been the only finger pointed. Defender Patrice Evra has even blamed the fans and lamented the "unbelievable" attitude of sections of the French public following the abuse from the stands which greeted their poor performance, even going as far as to say: "You get the impression that sometimes it would be better if we told the public to stay at home and not come and support the players.

"We have already spoken about it among the players. You come on to the pitch and get whistled at already. You have to ask the public, maybe they don't like football." Even if France win their next two games, a play-off seems likely, but do not bank on the divided team reaching South Africa just yet. @Email:amitten@thenational.ae

Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others

Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.

As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.

Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.

“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”

Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.

“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”

Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.

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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Mastering the memory: the phenomena of Quran memorisation

BRIEF SCORES

England 353 and 313-8 dec
(B Stokes 112, A Cook 88; M Morkel 3-70, K Rabada 3-85)
(J Bairstow 63, T Westley 59, J Root 50; K Maharaj 3-50)
South Africa 175 and 252
(T Bavuma 52; T Roland-Jones 5-57, J Anderson 3-25)
(D Elgar 136; M Ali 4-45, T Roland-Jones 3-72)

Result: England won by 239 runs
England lead four-match series 2-1

Name: Peter Dicce

Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics

Favourite sport: soccer

Favourite team: Bayern Munich

Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer

Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates

French strike a divided pose

Despite beleaguered coach Raymond Domenech claiming otherwise, France's result on Saturday versus the Faroe Islands should be a formality.

Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others

More on Quran memorisation:

BRIEF SCORES