There was a time, before player power entered the sporting vocabulary, when it merely appeared a description of a physically forceful footballer. Those were more innocent times, a preferable era.
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Now it has become a constant complaint of managers, chief executive and chairmen, an enemy not merely of football clubs, but also of football fans.
Carlos Tevez has become the personification of player power, seemingly operating under the assumption that clubs will bow to his every whim.
Manchester City, it is implied, should let him dictate the terms of the transfer as well allowing him to choose his destination, even though he has not represented them for four months in which he has either been suspended or effectively gone on strike.
City, it seems, are supposed to bend over backwards to get him off the books.
It is an attempt to hold the Premier League leaders to ransom, and it is not his first.
And yet this particular ransom note has been sent to the wrong place. Wealth provides a choice. Poorer clubs would have been forced to capitulate, rationalising that a lesser or even a temporary return on their investment was better than none at all.
City do not want to write off Tevez's transfer fee and pay his sizeable wages, but they can afford to. Moreover, they should be applauded for their willingness to do so.
It is a principled stand in a frequently murky world, one that comes at a cost but may elevate the club's reputation. Few results have done as much for Roberto Mancini's standing as his willingness to exile Tevez after the striker refused to warm up and, the manager believes, come off the bench against Bayern Munich.
Sir Alex Ferguson was among those to praise his City counterpart. It indicated a recognition in the game that Tevez had gone too far, just as there are clubs who refuse to deal with his controversial adviser, Kia Joorabchian. He appears to believe City is a cash cow that can never be bled dry.
It is a major misjudgement, one where the wounds have been sustained by his client.
At 27, Tevez should be at the peak of his powers, a prized player rather than a pariah. Instead, by the time his contract expires in 2014, he could have gone almost three years without an appearance, losing his status as one of the most coveted strikers in the game to become, effectively, an ex-footballer.
That is what makes his a landmark case. No world-class talent has become an outcast at his own club in such a style. Whenever that scenario has seemed possible in the past, someone has backed down.
But City have compromised to keep Tevez happy before; they were willing to structure a deal to suit Corinthians last summer. Their understanding has not been reciprocated. Tevez's hardline approach has backfired.
Whether he actually does rot in the reserves and sulk in the stands or merely plays golf in Argentina remains to be seen.
Whichever, given his talent, it is a crying shame. But he has no one to blame except himself. And Joorabchian.
sports@thenational.ae
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
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Rating: 3.5/5
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
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THE SPECS
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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.”
Key facilities
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- Premier League-standard football pitch
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