AL AIN // A smashed refrigerator in the dressing room stood as evidence of India's frustration following their 3-0 defeat against the UAE on Saturday night after having two men sent off inside the first 23 minutes.
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The defender Debabrata Roy was given his marching orders by the Qatari referee, Mohammed Al Dosari, in the 19th minute after he grappled Ali Al Wehaibi to the ground.
Four minutes later, the India goalkeeper, Subrata Pal, followed him to the dressing room after charging at Ismail Al Hammadi with a knee up.
Hamdan Al Kamali and Mohammed Al Shehhi scored from the two resulting penalties and Al Hammadi completed the score-line nine-minutes from time.
Pal, allegedly, took his anger out in the changing room, and Armando Colaco, the India coach, accused the referee of killing off the game.
"My question is, do those incidents merit a red card?," Colaco said. "In the case of Roy, the goalkeeper was behind him. He was not the last defender.
"Subrata had the ball in his hand. So he was protecting it when the player charged him. I know he lifted his leg, but who came charging? Punish him with a yellow card, but not a red card, because he had the ball with him.
"I think the red cards were unnecessary. The referee killed the game. It would have been a very nice game.
"I appreciate and I congratulate UAE for winning this match, but don't forget my boys put up a spirited show because they scored just one field goal."
In the early exchanges, India seemed to be playing true to Colaco's pre-match boast that this is not the same team who got walloped 5-0 at the same venue in November and then at the Asian Cup in January.
The visitors, cheered on by a loud group of supporters, did not seem overawed and looked on par with their rivals, who are ranked 37 places higher by Fifa.
In the 19th minute, however, India were reduced to 10 men when Roy pulled his arms around Al Wehaibi and brought him down. The defender got his marching orders and Al Kamali slotted home from the spot.
A minute later, India lost another man - their goalkeeper Pal, who crashed into Al Hammadi with a raised knee. Play was held up for the next five minutes as the visiting players walked off in protest at the decision by Al Dosari, but the team management convinced them to return.
"Unfortunately there was an emotional outburst there with the referees," said Colaco.
"I am sorry. It all happened in the heat of the moment. The players said they did not want to continue, but I thought about the sanctions that could follow from Fifa and AFC [the Asian Football Confederation]. I told them let's continue and not give any more goals.
"The referee is also human. But to walk away is something I don't think my federation would allow."
The two dismissals forced India to go on the defensive; seven were put on guard duty and Sunil Chhetri played as the lone man upfront.
That, however, could not stop UAE from getting their third goal of the night as Al Hammadi sneaked through the defence and fired home a smart back-flick from Amer Abdulrahman in the 81st minute.
"Frankly speaking, the referee was the man of the match," Colaco said. "The UAE are a much better team and deserved to win for the way they played. We would have played much better football as well … had the referee not been the man of the match."
Srecko Katanec, the UAE coach, was happy that he will be taking a three-goal advantage to Delhi for the reverse leg on Thursday, but believes his team should have scored more.
"Before the game, if somebody had told me 3-0, I would have taken it immediately," Katanec said.
"So I am happy with the result, but I think we should have scored more because we had many chances. This is one area we could certainly improve on.
"We have a big advantage, but we should try to score early [in Delhi] and kill the game.
"We have the quality to keep this advantage."
arizvi@thenational.ae
How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
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UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FIXTURES
All kick-off times 10.45pm UAE ( 4 GMT) unless stated
Tuesday
Sevilla v Maribor
Spartak Moscow v Liverpool
Manchester City v Shakhtar Donetsk
Napoli v Feyenoord
Besiktas v RB Leipzig
Monaco v Porto
Apoel Nicosia v Tottenham Hotspur
Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid
Wednesday
Basel v Benfica
CSKA Moscow Manchester United
Paris Saint-Germain v Bayern Munich
Anderlecht v Celtic
Qarabag v Roma (8pm)
Atletico Madrid v Chelsea
Juventus v Olympiakos
Sporting Lisbon v Barcelona
Results
6.30pm: Dubai Millennium Stakes Group Three US$200,000 (Turf) 2,000m; Winner: Ghaiyyath, William Buick (jockey), Charlie Appleby (trainer).
7.05pm: Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Cliffs Of Capri, Tadhg O’Shea, Jamie Osborne.
7.40pm: UAE Oaks Group Three $250,000 (Dirt) 1,900m; Winner: Down On Da Bayou, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8.15pm: Zabeel Mile Group Two $250,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Zakouski, James Doyle, Charlie Appleby.
8.50pm: Meydan Sprint Group Two $250,000 (T) 1,000m; Winner: Waady, Jim Crowley, Doug Watson.
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One in four Americans don't plan to retire
Nearly a quarter of Americans say they never plan to retire, according to a poll that suggests a disconnection between individuals' retirement plans and the realities of ageing in the workforce.
Experts say illness, injury, layoffs and caregiving responsibilities often force older workers to leave their jobs sooner than they'd like.
According to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research, 23 per cent of workers, including nearly two in 10 of those over 50, don't expect to stop working. Roughly another quarter of Americans say they will continue working beyond their 65th birthday.
According to government data, about one in five people 65 and older was working or actively looking for a job in June. The study surveyed 1,423 adults in February this year.
For many, money has a lot to do with the decision to keep working.
"The average retirement age that we see in the data has gone up a little bit, but it hasn't gone up that much," says Anqi Chen, assistant director of savings research at the Centre for Retirement Research at Boston College. "So people have to live in retirement much longer, and they may not have enough assets to support themselves in retirement."
When asked how financially comfortable they feel about retirement, 14 per cent of Americans under the age of 50 and 29 per cent over 50 say they feel extremely or very prepared, according to the poll. About another four in 10 older adults say they do feel somewhat prepared, while just about one-third feel unprepared.
"One of the things about thinking about never retiring is that you didn't save a whole lot of money," says Ronni Bennett, 78, who was pushed out of her job as a New York City-based website editor at 63.
She searched for work in the immediate aftermath of her layoff, a process she describes as akin to "banging my head against a wall." Finding Manhattan too expensive without a steady stream of income, she eventually moved to Portland, Maine. A few years later, she moved again, to Lake Oswego, Oregon. "Sometimes I fantasise that if I win the lottery, I'd go back to New York," says Ms Bennett.
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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.”
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Always check the weather forecast before setting off
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Take your litter home with you
PROFILE OF INVYGO
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Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
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Investment: $1,275,000
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Midfielders: Toshihiro Aoyama, Genki Haraguchi, Gaku Shibasaki, Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Shoya Nakajima, Takumi Minamino, Hidemasa Morita, Ritsu Doan
Forwards: Yuya Osako, Takuma Asano, Koya Kitagawa
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
