Ronaldo, Messi – both in with a chance of playing at the 2017 Fifa Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi

Preparations for the event, which takes place in the UAE this December, ramped up when the official emblem and match schedule were confirmed at a launch event in the capital.

Details

The Fifa Club World Cup, a seven-team competition that pits against one another the winners of the six continental confederations, will be staged in the UAE for the next two years. The UAE has hosted the tournament twice before, in 2009 and 2010, with Barcelona and Inter Milan emerging as victors. This year’s event opens on December 6 at Al Ain’s Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, where the winner of the 2016/17 Arabian Gulf League takes on the champions of Oceania. The final takes place at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Sports City on December 16. All eight matches will be played across those two venues.

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Build-up

“With the announcement of the official emblem, this is an important milestone on our journey to the 14th edition of this event,” Mohammed Khalfan Al Romaithi, the chairman of the Local Organising Committee, said. “It is a great honour for the UAE to host this tournament once again. Today people talk about economic issues in the UAE because of the lower oil prices, but this is the answer from the UAE to that. We are saying we are committed to all the agreements we have signed and everything is progressing perfectly. This is proof we are still committed to making these tournaments successful. This is how we can gain the trust of Fifa when we request in future to hosts more events. We will showcase our country as a world-class sporting destination. We look forward to welcoming fans in December.”

Improving UAE football

“I’m sure this tournament, coming back to our capital after six or seven years, will be more celebratory, more organised and it will have all the magnificent things that you can accommodate with it,” Marwan bin Ghalita, the president of the Football Association, said. “Today the infrastructure is more ready than before and the human capital to organise such a tournament is ready and capable of giving their best. I believe the UAE’s citizens, or tourists coming from outside the country, will see something that will make them happy. I’m very happy regarding the participation of our teams at this event, because when you take part with the best teams in the world you gain more experience and get a new challenge for the players at a higher level. I just hope that a good crowd shows up – we need to engage fans from now – and that there’s good play.”

Fifa’s confidence

“We saw the UAE deliver great tournaments in 2009 and 2010 and it is only going to be even better than those editions,” Colin Smith, the chief competitions and events officer at Fifa, said. “Even the landscape of the UAE has evolved quite significantly in the past seven to eight years. It is a much more mature industry now and the fan engagement and how we will promote the tournament will be better than what we have seen before. We have two great stadiums in Zayed Sports City, which is undergoing thorough refurbishment, and Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, which is a great stadium with 22,000 capacity.”

Ticket news

Ticket sales will be launched in the coming weeks on Fifa.com.

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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.”

The winners

Fiction

‘Amreekiya’ by Lena Mahmoud
‘As Good As True’ by Cheryl Reid

The Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award

‘Syrian and Lebanese Patricios in Sao Paulo’ by Oswaldo Truzzi; translated by Ramon J Stern
‘The Sound of Listening’ by Philip Metres

The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award

‘Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance’ by Fady Joudah

Children/Young Adult

‘I’ve Loved You Since Forever’ by Hoda Kotb

6 UNDERGROUND

Director: Michael Bay

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Adria Arjona, Dave Franco

2.5 / 5 stars

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Our legal consultant

Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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The Ashes

Results
First Test, Brisbane: Australia won by 10 wickets
Second Test, Adelaide: Australia won by 120 runs
Third Test, Perth: Australia won by an innings and 41 runs
Fourth Test: Melbourne: Drawn
Fifth Test: Australia won by an innings and 123 runs

Defence review at a glance

• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”

• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems

• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.

• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%

• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade

• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels