BARCELONA // When Spanish champions Atletico Madrid visit Barcelona on Sunday night in Spain’s most eagerly awaited game since the clasico, the reaction at the final whistle is unlikely to be as it was when Diego Simeone’s side last visited Camp Nou.
Last May, Barcelona fans applauded newly-crowned champions Atletico off the pitch before booing their own players for a limp end to a disappointing season. Barca president Josep Bartomeu promised “profound changes” at a club staggering from one scandal to another.
Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez departed, while long-time captain Carles Puyol moved upstairs to assist Andoni Zubizarreta as the club’s sporting director. Former player Luis Enrique was appointed as manager, but the turbulence that blighted Barca in 2014 did not stop.
Problems came to a head with last Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at David Moyes’ well-organised Real Sociedad side.
Zubizarreta, a former Barca goalkeeper, was dismissed from his position – to the delight of fans who blamed him for an inconsistent transfer policy that saw Barca choose not to buy a much-needed central defender for three years and then sign the injured Thomas Vermaelen, who has yet to play a game.
Zubizarreta was also the sporting director when the club were banned from making transfers until 2016 for breaching Fifa regulations. He maintains that he knew nothing about what was going on. People close to the club say that everyone at Camp Nou knew what was going on.
Lionel Messi has been at the centre of the storm.
A commander in the shadows who says little but wields – and is indulged with – significant power, he has had issues with every manager at Camp Nou, plus the players he is asked to play alongside. In Messi’s view, it is because he has a continual pursuit of excellence. Others do not see it like that, but Messi remains the most important man at Camp Nou.
His coach Enrique always lavishes praise on him publicly, but there has been tension between the pair – which is denied by the club. Despite being linked with a move away, Messi is more likely to be there next season than Enrique.
No president wants to be the man who sells one of the world’s best players when he is in his 20s, though club elections have been called a year early for this June.
Former president Joan Laporta, with whom Messi largely enjoyed good relations, is favourite to return.
He will like the challenge of attempting to restore order to a club that often appears to be at war with both itself and authority and at odds with its ethically pure image of being “more than a club”.
Messi’s people stir things up with demands for new contracts every year, but he himself has experienced several lows in the last year at Barca – including injuries, no trophies and the departures of his friends Fabregas and Jose Manuel Pinto.
He flies to Zurich on Monday to see rival Cristiano Ronaldo presented with the Ballon d’Or, but Messi is largely for staying where he is loved. And Barcelona’s fans adore Messi. They sing his name at every game and pressure anyone who criticises him. It is an almost unconditional love.
Messi is set to play his 450th Barca game. He scored his 423rd career goal in Thursday’s 5-0 Copa del Rey win against Elche, but that was watched by just 27,000, Barca’s lowest crowd of the season. A 10pm kick off for a mid-winter game played two days after the holiday period finished did not help.
Sunday night’s crowd is expected to be closer to 90,000 when Messi will come up against Atletico’s exceptional Koke, the only man to have more assists than him in the Primera Liga this season.
Atletico were the beneficiaries of both Barca and Real Madrid losing league games last weekend. The champions are level on 38 points with Barca and a point behind their neighbours, whom they beat 2-0 in a Copa del Rey first leg in midweek.
Atletico were worthy champions, and while their form is not quite as spectacular as last season, they have the experience that comes with winning the league. When he was not talking politics this week, Bartomeu claimed Atletico were favourites for tonight’s game at the Camp Nou.
They are not, but Barca were unable to overcome Diego Simeone’s side in six thrilling encounters last year. Not for nothing is Sunday night’s encounter so eagerly awaited.
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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.”
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
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Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut
Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”
