UAE, in white, had started with a loss to Latvia, in red, but won the last league game against Azerbaijan. Courtesy Sakis Savvides
UAE, in white, had started with a loss to Latvia, in red, but won the last league game against Azerbaijan. Courtesy Sakis Savvides
UAE, in white, had started with a loss to Latvia, in red, but won the last league game against Azerbaijan. Courtesy Sakis Savvides
UAE, in white, had started with a loss to Latvia, in red, but won the last league game against Azerbaijan. Courtesy Sakis Savvides

UAE women beat Lebanon for first win and in fifth-place fight at Aphrodite Cup


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The UAE women’s football team will face Azerbaijan tomorrow in a play-off for fifth place at the Aphrodite Cyprus Cup after recording their first win of the tournament, beating Lebanon 3-0 on Sunday.

Nouf Saleh, Shahad Jassem and Salha Rashid netted as the UAE finished the group stage on a consolatory note after two losses, 2-0 to Latvia and 7-0 to Greece.

Greece and Cyprus will face off for first place; Latvia and Malta for third place; and Bahrain and Lebanon will compete for seventh place.

Maryam Bertawi, one of the players, said the UAE had benefited a lot from the three matches in the Cyprus international tournament, including the game against Lebanon, in which the UAE team scored a moral-boosting win.

“We played well against Lebanon, we controlled the game and we learnt from our mistakes in the first two matches against Latvia and Greece,” she said.

Nora Mazrouei, the captain and goalkeeper, said she was happy with the level shown by her side and said that playing in competitive international competitions such as the Cyprus tournament could benefit the UAE team.

“We followed the coach’s instructions on the pitch, which helped us to win,” she said.

“The Lebanese team was not weak; it was rather a strong competitor. But we were determined to achieve a positive result after the losses against Latvia and Greece.”

This was the team’s first outing after being absent from competitions for more than 18 months. Participating in the tournament means the UAE will now enter the Fifa world rankings and be able to play a wider range of competitions.

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Castro (45'), Aspas (82')

Barcelona 2
Dembele (36'), Alcacer (64')

Red card: Sergi Roberto (Barcelona)

Getting%20there
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Scoreline:

Cardiff City 0

Liverpool 2

Wijnaldum 57', Milner 81' (pen)

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Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

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Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

Timeline

2012-2015

The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East

May 2017

The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts

September 2021

Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act

October 2021

Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence 

December 2024

Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group

May 2025

The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan

July 2025

The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan

August 2025

Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision

October 2025

Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange

November 2025

180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE

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Madrid Open schedule

Men's semi-finals

Novak Djokovic (1) v Dominic Thiem (5) from 6pm

Stefanos Tsitsipas (8) v Rafael Nadal (2) from 11pm

Women's final

Simona Halep (3) v Kiki Bertens (7) from 8.30pm

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?

The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.

Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.

“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.

The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.

The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.

Bloomberg