Across the leading leagues of Europe, reigning champions are stumbling.
Atletico Madrid have slipped seven points off the summit of the Primera Liga.
Manchester City see the same gap stretch ahead of them in England, while Paris Saint-Germain are two places shy of the top place in France’s Ligue 1 they have come to regard as their right, in recent years.
Only in Italy, where Juventus canter towards a fourth successive championship, and Germany, where Bayern Munich are back thumping other members of the Bundesliga after recent slip-ups, does the defence of last year’s title seem assured.
Variety at the very top animates the best club competitions. And the very best of them is the Uefa Champions League, which emerges from its winter break on Tuesday night.
The winners may be drawn from a limited pool of candidates, but they are almost never the same from one year to the next. No club has retained the European Cup since 1990.
That is a full eight years before Martin Odegaard, an intriguing January addition to the squad of the holders, Real Madrid, was born.
Many older participants than him can testify to how difficult it is to lift the trophy two years in succession.
Ask Paulo Sousa, coach of the Basel team who take on Porto. His answer is that the only way to do it is to keep switching clubs.
As a player, Sousa won the 1996 competition with Juventus and then was a member of the Borussia Dortmund side who upset predictions by beating Juve 12 months later.
Or ask Pep Guardiola, who takes his Bayern Munich to Lviv, to meet a Shakhtar Donetsk side displaced by war but still capable of spirited football.
Guardiola is seeking a third Champions League title as a coach. His Bayern side are among the favourites.
But Guardiola has been in charge of favourites before.
His Barcelona were that in 2010, when their defence of the crown was interrupted by Inter Milan.
So were his Bayern last season, when, as holders, they suffered a devastating four-goal thrashing by Real Madrid at Munich in the semi-final.
Bayern put eight goals past Hamburg on Saturday, and although Guardiola frets over the length of an injury list that includes Philipp Lahm, Thiago Alcantara, Javi Martinez and a recovering Xabi Alonso, he has a squad of ample depth to negotiate the tie against Shakhtar and beyond.
Franck Ribery returned from his lay-off against Hamburg and scored, demonstrating his readiness to compete for one of the attacking positions alongside Arjen Robben, Mario Gotze, Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski.
That sort of depth will be envied by Carlo Ancelotti, the coach of defending champions Real Madrid.
His side travel to Germany to play Schalke, with injury problems affecting several of their first-teamers.
A compelling run of form in late 2014 has given way to several patchy displays and concerns about the well-being of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Madrid may not need to turn to Odegaard, the 16-year-old Norwegian, quite yet, but they must play more fluently than they have in the last six weeks if they are to add an 11th European Cup immediately after their 10th.
Of the first batch of games, Chelsea’s trip to PSG will claim the most attention, the meeting of two clubs who have been transformed by huge investment since the turn of the millennium, into superpowers capable of adding more variety to the European Cup’s shifting roll of honour. Like Madrid, PSG have a badly timed spate of injuries, with four picked up in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Caen. Laurent Blanc lamented those injuries and the fact that Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea enjoyed a weekend off, thanks to their early FA Cup exit against Bradford City, and have had 10 days to prepare for the Parisians.
“Mourinho is a genius for having organised that,” said Blanc, only half-joking.
What Mourinho does know is that rest days are at a premium now, and that stamina and a deep squad matter from here until June.
sports@thenational.ae
@ For more UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE news visit thenational.ae/topics
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The biog
Nickname: Mama Nadia to children, staff and parents
Education: Bachelors degree in English Literature with Social work from UAE University
As a child: Kept sweets on the window sill for workers, set aside money to pay for education of needy families
Holidays: Spends most of her days off at Senses often with her family who describe the centre as part of their life too
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.”
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
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
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
