ABU DHABI // Ivory Coast will arrive at the African Cup of Nations as favourites to win the tournament yet, following 20 years of disappointment, the country's much-vaunted golden generation appreciate this could be their last chance to complement high praise with a trophy.
"The Elephants" have not won a trophy since the Cup of Nations in 1992, and this year more than half of Francois Zahoui's star-studded 23-man squad for the month-long tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea are over the age of 28.
Didier Drogba, the captain, will turn 34 shortly after the February 12 final. The end of his glittering career has never loomed so prominently on the horizon.
"I am 30 and most of the team is around 30, so of course it is more important," said Kolo Toure, the Manchester City defender.
"We have to try and win this tournament because it is the only thing missing in our record. We have been to the World Cup twice, but we know winning the World Cup is difficult. With the players we have, though, we know we're able to win the African Nations, and if we don't win it will be a very bad thing for us. It's going to be a massive tournament for us again."
At the 2010 competition in Angola, the team were eliminated in the quarter-finals after slipping to a 3-2 extra-time defeat to Algeria. For a country that reached the final in 2006 and the semi-finals two years later, it was a disappointment.
This year, Zahoui's men, who are ranked 16th in the world by Fifa, have been drawn in a group alongside Sudan, Angola and Burkina Faso, none of whom are higher than 62nd. They should also be able to avoid Ghana, Africa's strongest team at the World Cup in 2010, until at least the semi-finals.
Yaya Toure, Kolo's brother, who also plays for Manchester City, said it is too early to make predictions, but the pain of two years ago is still raw.
"We hope this year will be our year," he said. "We have failed three times, but we hope this time will be different because it is always so difficult.
"All the players play in Europe and we know in Africa it is different; the weather, the field, everything. We have to fight.
"The quality is not enough. If we speak about the quality, we have fantastic quality and fantastic players that can make a difference, but we need a fighting spirit, too, because in Africa it is so difficult.
"We have to show courage in order to go forward and progress in this competition."
Drogba, who has scored 50 times in 75 games at international level, is likely to be joined in attack by his Chelsea teammate Salomon Kalou, who appears to be finding form at the right time. The 25 year old scored in both of his country's exhibition matches in Abu Dhabi this month and said his goal is to maintain that run and finish the tournament with "eight goals in eight games".
"There are big expectations, because everybody says that with the players we have we should win it easily, but, you know, there are no small games anymore, and we have to respect everyone and play our best," Kalou said.
"The only way of putting ourselves in trouble is to not pay attention to every team. If the small team qualifies and the big team doesn't, the only reason can be because the small team is good.
"We have to respect everyone and we have to play 200 per cent, as if every game is the final."
Last year, the country's disputed presidential elections saw the Ivory Coast plunged back into a state of civil war, which left more than 3,000 people dead. The nation's football team now hopes to bring more positive news back to their homeland.
"It's going to be massive for all the people in Ivory Coast," Kolo Toure said. "They have been suffering so much, so can you imagine the players bringing them this trophy. It's going to be massive for the country, the people, our family and for all of us as well.
"It would be great for us to take this trophy back to them as a way to help forget about this big trouble that our country has faced."
Ivory Coast start their campaign against Sudan on Saturday.
[ gmeenaghan@thenational.ae ]
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.”
Company Profile
Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
Founders: Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 30
Investment stage: Seed
MATCH DETAILS
Barcelona 0
Slavia Prague 0
WHAT IS THE LICENSING PROCESS FOR VARA?
Vara will cater to three categories of companies in Dubai (except the DIFC):
Category A: Minimum viable product (MVP) applicants that are currently in the process of securing an MVP licence: This is a three-stage process starting with [1] a provisional permit, graduating to [2] preparatory licence and concluding with [3] operational licence. Applicants that are already in the MVP process will be advised by Vara to either continue within the MVP framework or be transitioned to the full market product licensing process.
Category B: Existing legacy virtual asset service providers prior to February 7, 2023, which are required to come under Vara supervision. All operating service proviers in Dubai (excluding the DIFC) fall under Vara’s supervision.
Category C: New applicants seeking a Vara licence or existing applicants adding new activities. All applicants that do not fall under Category A or B can begin the application process through their current or prospective commercial licensor — the DET or Free Zone Authority — or directly through Vara in the instance that they have yet to determine the commercial operating zone in Dubai.
Company Profile
Name: HyveGeo
Started: 2023
Founders: Abdulaziz bin Redha, Dr Samsurin Welch, Eva Morales and Dr Harjit Singh
Based: Cambridge and Dubai
Number of employees: 8
Industry: Sustainability & Environment
Funding: $200,000 plus undisclosed grant
Investors: Venture capital and government
