SYDNEY // The chances of Iraqi midfielder Ali Abbas playing in next year’s Asian Cup look over after he suffered a suspected serious knee injury in Australia’s A-League this weekend.
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Abbas, 28, who was recalled to the Iraqi national squad recently seven years after defecting to Australia, is expected to miss the rest of the A-League season after a heavy tackle in the opening minutes of Sydney FC’s derby against Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday.
“The news on Ali Abbas is terrible. It looks like ACL [anterior cruciate ligament] and MCL [medial collateral ligament] injury,” Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold said.
“I haven’t seen it [the challenge] on TV, so I would rather not comment but I was close to it and it looked terrible.
“Ali is devastated. He got smashed twice in two minutes and no yellow card.”
The injury followed a heavy challenge from Western Sydney’s Italian midfielder Iacopo La Rocca.
If the diagnosis is proved correct after scans, Abbas will miss the Asian Cup in Australia which begins in January.
Abbas was a member of the Iraq team that won the Asian Cup in 2007.
He fled his war-torn homeland after playing an under-23s international against Australia north of Sydney in 2007, and was later granted asylum to stay in the country.
“It would be great to play in Australia for Iraq and great to play in front of the Sydney FC fans in the Asian Cup, if I’m selected,” Abbas said at the time of his call-up to the Iraqi squad in September.
Decision on Asian Cup hosts is delayed
Qatar will stage the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Under 23 championships in 2016, which will also serve as an Olympic qualifier, but the wait to find out who will host the expanded 2019 Asian Cup will continue into next year.
AFC president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said a date had not been set for a decision on whether Iran or the UAE would host the 24-team showpiece event.
“Probably in 2015, by next year we will decide,” the Bahraini royal said in Manila on Saturday.
Asked if the decision would be made at the AFC’s Congress in January before the 16-team Asian Cup, he said: “No. Some time in the middle of the year.”
The UAE are favourites to add another sporting event to their resume as hosts, but the Iranian bid claimed to receive support from Fifa president Sepp Blatter, who visited Tehran last year.
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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.”
'Dark Waters'
Directed by: Todd Haynes
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, William Jackson Harper
Rating: ****
