The firm stance of Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, left, will be welcomed news to Robert Mancini. Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images
The firm stance of Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, left, will be welcomed news to Robert Mancini. Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images

Khaldoon Al Mubarak defiant over wantaway Carlos Tevez



ABU DHABI // Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the chairman of Manchester City, has warned Carlos Tevez and AC Milan that the club will not contemplate sanctioning the sale of the restless Argentine striker unless the Italian club meet their valuation and adopt a more professional approach to transfer negotiations.

The Tevez Saga

Manchester City firm

on Carlos Tevez price amid Milan club's interest.

Time to jettison

the diva of derision Carlos Tevez.

Decision to allow

Carlos Tevez to lift FA Cup was injudicious.

Al Mubarak confirmed the Premier League leaders are aware Adriano Galliani, the

vice president, has held talks with Tevez and

, over a proposed move to the San Siro, despite the Italian club failing to meet City's valuation of the 27 year old, believed to be upwards of ?30 million (Dh143m).

"As things stand AC Milan isn't an option for Carlos Tevez," Al Mubarak told The National.

"Mr Galliani and his advisers have developed a misplaced sense of confidence from their premature discussions with Carlos and his advisers. If they want to be a consideration in this transfer window they would do better to stop congratulating one another and begin to look at how they would meet our terms."

have already rejected a proposal from Milan to take Tevez on a half-season loan with a transfer dependent on performance targets. They will not approve a loan without a guaranteed end-of-season sale.

Al Mubarak confirmed talks with Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan have also taken place. Armed with a considerable budget from the Qatar Investment Authority, PSG held constructive talks with Manchester City and were prepared to match Tevez's wages but announced yesterday they had pulled out of the running after Tevez was quoted in Argentina as saying, "I see myself only in the red and black shirt, I am hoping for Milan."

"Paris St German and Inter Milan approached discussions with us in good faith and it is always a positive experience to deal with people with such a professional approach," Al Mubarak said.

Should the club's valuation of the player not be met, Al Mubarak said City have no intention of softening their hard-line stance.

Tevez, who is contracted to City until the summer of 2014, has been absent without leave since the second week of November.

"Carlos remains a player with contractual obligations to Manchester City for the next two and a half seasons," Al Mubarak said. "Unless we receive an offer that we deem appropriate, the terms of his contract will be enforced."

Tevez remains on unapproved leave in Argentina and has not played since the club imposed a four-week fine for a first charge of misconduct, subsequently reduced to two weeks when the Professional Footballers' Association refused to sanction the full punishment, for refusing to warm up in a Champions League against Bayern Munich.

Tevez briefly returned to training on October 13, only to return to his homeland without permission for which he has now been found guilty of gross misconduct and fined six weeks' wages. His appeal to the club's board was dismissed and he has until January 30 to make a final appeal to the Premier League.

The player's wages have also been stopped. This suspension of wages coupled with fines levied against Tevez to date are believed to total around £3.3m. When combined with the forfeiture in September of £6m worth of loyalty payments following his transfer request earlier in the year, Tevez is facing recent losses in excess of £9m.

Tevez's unauthorised break has seen him playing golf and spending time at the beach. Photographs circulated also showed him dining with Joorabchian and Galliani after a trip to Brazil.

Tevez, who was signed on a five-year deal in July 2009, has been attempting to engineer a move away from City for more than a year. In a display of apparent brinkmanship, Milan claimed they pulled out of negotiations with City earlier this month but have confirmed they are back in the race to sign Tevez.

"Tevez wants Milan? We also want Tevez," Galliani said on the club's official website this week. "We shall see, there are still seven days left until the end of the transfer window."

Discussions between Joorabchian and PSG officials did not elicit an agreement with the club, who yesterday ended their interest in the player.

"We stopped the negotiations," Leonardo, the French club's sporting director, told L'Equipe. "There was an opportunity, we have studied it, we made a good offer but failed to agree a deal. We will not pay excessively so we stop. It's over."

Inter have already had a ?25m bid rejected by City but the two parties could yet reach a deal as Inter are owed a substantial balancing payment on Mario Balotelli's 2010 transfer to City.

"I hope we can finish this quickly," said Roberto Mancini, the Manchester City manager, on Friday. "He has talked now with PSG, Inter and Milan and I hope for him that a deal can be concluded quickly. ."

* Additional reporting by Duncan Castles

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
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The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Power: 268bhp / 536bhp
Torque: 343Nm / 686Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
On sale: Later this year
Uefa Nations League

League A:
Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands

League B:
Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey

League C:
Hungary, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Norway, Montenegro, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania

League D:
Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

Hotel Data Cloud profile

Date started: June 2016
Founders: Gregor Amon and Kevin Czok
Based: Dubai
Sector: Travel Tech
Size: 10 employees
Funding: $350,000 (Dh1.3 million)
Investors: five angel investors (undisclosed except for Amar Shubar)

Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
Rating: 4/5
From Zero

Artist: Linkin Park

Label: Warner Records

Number of tracks: 11

Rating: 4/5

Electoral College Victory

Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate. 

 

Popular Vote Tally

The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.

Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode

Directors: Raj & DK

Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon

Rating: 4/5

The%20Genius%20of%20Their%20Age
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Company%20Profile
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How to get there

Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
 

Draw for Europa League last-16

Istanbul Basaksehir v Copenhagen; Olympiakos Piraeus v Wolverhampton Wanderers

Rangers v Bayer Leverkusen; VfL Wolfsburg v Shakhtar Donetsk; Inter Milan v Getafe

Sevilla v AS Roma; Eintracht Frankfurt or Salzburg v Basel; LASK v Manchester United

If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.

When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.

How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale

Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni

Director: Amith Krishnan

Rating: 3.5/5

RESULT

RS Leipzig 3 

Marcel Sabitzer 10', 21'

Emil Forsberg 87'

Tottenham 0

 

FORSPOKEN
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Starfield
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Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE

There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.

It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.

What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.

When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.

It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.

This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.

It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.

Company%20Profile
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Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Rating: 2/5
 
NATIONAL%20SELECTIONS
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The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The specs

  Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now


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