Supporters of Swansea City and Cardiff City have always loathed each other. Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images
Supporters of Swansea City and Cardiff City have always loathed each other. Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images

Rivalry between Swansea City and Cardiff City will outlast the present



It is a beautiful afternoon in South Wales as the sun dips behind the silhouette of the vast Port Talbot steelworks.

On the nearby motorway, a scruffy flag distracts motorists. “CCFC Port Talbot Blue Birds” it reads. The flag’s owners wait for the approaching convoy of 30 coaches carrying the entire Cardiff City support to Swansea.

Police close motorway junctions as the procession, flanked by 25 police vehicles and a helicopter, moves west on its 65-kilometre journey.

The 2,600 Cardiff fans are herded into a grim steel pen adjacent to the away turnstiles. Many of the travellers are in a state of foaming hysteria. One opens the coach skylight and spews a barrage of verbal fire. Welcome to the biggest game in Wales.

The year was 2008 and this was the first meeting in nine years between the two biggest clubs in Wales.

In a study commissioned by the New Football Pools, the battle between Cardiff and Swansea was seen as bigger than Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal, the Sheffield derby, Aston Villa v Birmingham and Newcastle v Sunderland.

The survey result becomes more pronounced considering the teams’ respective histories moving up and down the leagues ensured they avoided each other in league competition for decades at a time.

Not that they needed to play each other to keep the rivalry going. Following their 2006 success in the Football League Trophy at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, the Swansea players Lee Trundle and Alan Tate carried to Cardiff a Wales flag embellished with abuse.

When the teams met in 2008 in English football’s second tier, fans thought it would be a one off. They assumed that one of the teams would be relegated.

Within five years, both would be promoted to the Premier League.

They meet today in Swansea for the first time as a top-flight league game.

Both clubs have moved from their decaying old homes to new stadiums in the past decade, with today’s game at the Liberty Stadium, a clean black-and-white bowl of 20,500 seats – the Premier League’s smallest venue.

Like Cardiff, they are expanding their stadium.

They are both hopeful of a Premier League future and want the capacity to give them the revenue to compete.

The Cardiff fans will make the same journey along the motorway, with security heavy and, hopefully, as effective as the reverse fixture earlier in the season when no arrests were made. The only difference is that their buses will be free tonight.

Cardiff won the November game 1-0, but with the side at the bottom of the table and Swansea only three points ahead in 14th, the likelihood of both clubs staying up is slim. It is a desperate relegation battle. Swansea dismissed manager Michael Laudrup this week after their slump in form. The Dane is considering legal action against his former club.

Cardiff last month appointed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to replace Malky Mackay after the latter fell out with the Malaysian owner Vincent Tan.

Swansea will become the centre of attention for a couple of hours today.

Despite the stunning coastline outside the city that stretches towards the Mumbles lighthouse and the Gower Peninsula, Swansea itself does not exactly rival fellow port cities like Sydney or San Francisco for aesthetics.

Even their most famous son Dylan Thomas described it as an “Ugly, lovely town”, but there have been improvements and the city’s football team have mirrored the uplift.

After decades of disappointments, until recently fortunes had been looking up at both clubs.

Both sell out their 20,500 and 27,000 capacity homes. A decade ago, Swansea averaged 5,000 and Cardiff around 10,000.

Both cities have the population to support a top-flight club and both clubs have slick off-the-field operations.

They have also made considerable and successful efforts to curb the hooligan problems for which they long endured an uneasy reputation.

The issue is, Cardiff and Swansea fans really do loathe each other and nothing will ever take that away.

sports@thenational.ae

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Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.

It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.

It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.

It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.

Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.

The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.

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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Power: 510hp at 9,000rpm
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
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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

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.”

The more serious side of specialty coffee

While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.

The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.

Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”

One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.

Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms. 

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Other workplace saving schemes
  • The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
  • Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
  • National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
  • In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
  • Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
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Install an air filter in your home.

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First Job: Abu Dhabi Department of Petroleum in 1974  
Current role: Chairperson of Al Maskari Holding since 2008
Career high: Regularly cited on Forbes list of 100 most powerful Arab Businesswomen
Achievement: Helped establish Al Maskari Medical Centre in 1969 in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region
Future plan: Will now concentrate on her charitable work

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Dubai Hurricanes 24-12 Abu Dhabi Harlequins

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Emergency

Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

Rating: 2/5

Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters

The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.

 Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.

A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.

The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.

The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.

Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.

Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment

But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.

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Transmission: eight-speed automatic

Power: 715bhp

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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