Up to 100,000 Glasgow Rangers supporters are expected to have arrived in Seville by the end of Wednesday afternoon, the vast majority of them simply to be somewhere in the broad vicinity of the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium. Its capacity is a little over 42,000 and the allocation of tickets for fans of the Europa League finalists was capped, officially, at under 10,000 for each.
Happily, Seville is a city of abundant football arenas. Close to 60,000 supporters of Eintracht Frankfurt and Rangers will watch a big-screen broadcast at La Cartuja stadium some three kilometres from the live action. That still leaves plenty seeking bars and restaurants with a television.
Safe to report that the capital of Andalusia will experience the sort of night it has known only once this century, when La Cartuja hosted the 2003 Uefa Cup final between Porto and Celtic, the Scottish club losing 3-2. Naturally, that was an outcome noisily celebrated by followers of Rangers.
But the boasts and taunts across Glasgow’s fevered rivalry have for most of the last 20 years been contained within the confines of Scotland’s domestic game, across cups and a league ranked by Uefa as only the ninth strongest in Europe. Rangers did reach a Uefa Cup final in 2008, losing to Zenit Saint Petersburg, but the journey to this evening started from a very low place indeed.
A decade ago, the club were preparing for a season in the Scottish third division, effectively the fourth tier. They had gone into liquidation, the consequence of chronic financial mismanagement. Their closest chasers for the main prize – promotion – in the 2012/13 campaign were not Celtic but Peterhead, whose Balmoor Stadium in Aberdeenshire has never known a crowd as big as the 4,850 who watched them host Rangers nine years ago. The first step back up the hierarchy was duly achieved, and the next step, winning League One, but Rangers would find themselves stuck in the second tier for two seasons.
They rejoined the top division in 2016, by which time Celtic were five titles into a run of nine successive league triumphs. In that lean, punitive period there were many agonising moments for many of the 100,000 who have flocked to southern Spain.
Like the evening Celtic defeated Barcelona in Glasgow in the Champions League in November 2012, a week after the official liquidation of Rangers, or least the company that had represented a club with 54 Scottish titles.
The 55th, under what is technically a new corporate entity, was claimed last season, with Steven Gerrard as manager. Another important aspect of Gerrard’s legacy was a renewed self-confidence in Europe. The year before his 2018 appointment, Rangers had been eliminated from the Europa League at the summer qualifying stage by Progres Niederkorn of Luxembourg. Or starkly put, by the fourth strongest team from what Uefa then ranked as the 46th best league in its territory.
Under Gerrard, Rangers would beat the likes of Galatasary, Porto and Feyenoord, share the points in group stage meetings with such as Villarreal and Benfica. By the time he left to take up the position as manager of Aston Villa earlier this season, supporters were becoming used to European campaigns lasting into the new year, a round or two beyond the Europa League group phase.
But what has happened under Gerrad’s successor, Gio van Bronkhorst, the former Rangers, Barcelona, Arsenal and Netherlands player, has exceeded the most ambitious dreams.
A survey of the clubs who embarked on the group phase back in September would have identified Napoli, or perhaps Leicester City or West Ham United, or maybe Lyon or Eintracht as the likeliest teams to advance deep in the competition. Rangers had failed in pre-qualifying for the Champions League by losing to Malmo.
They hauled themselves into the Europa League group phase via the narrowest aggregate victory over Alashkert of Armenia. Once Barcelona, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund, Porto and RB Leipzig entered at the knockout phase, the Scottish representatives looked even more distant outsiders.
But under Van Bronkhorst, Borussia Dortmund were beaten 4-2 in Germany and RB Leipzig saw a first-leg lead wiped out at Ibrox in a stirring semi-final in which James Tavernier, the Rangers captain, led the comeback and became, with his seventh goal in this Europa League, the competition’s leading scorer – from right-back. “Amazing,” says Van Bronckhorst of his skipper.
Those wins over leading Bundesliga clubs bode well for the challenge of Eintracht, who finished 11th in the German table. “They are physically strong, have pace up front and are good defensively,” says the Rangers manager. “We have to respect their quality. But we have the character and belief for this final.”
Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
Source: YouGov
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
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
Basquiat in Abu Dhabi
One of Basquiat’s paintings, the vibrant Cabra (1981–82), now hangs in Louvre Abu Dhabi temporarily, on loan from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
The latter museum is not open physically, but has assembled a collection and puts together a series of events called Talking Art, such as this discussion, moderated by writer Chaedria LaBouvier.
It's something of a Basquiat season in Abu Dhabi at the moment. Last week, The Radiant Child, a documentary on Basquiat was shown at Manarat Al Saadiyat, and tonight (April 18) the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is throwing the re-creation of a party tonight, of the legendary Canal Zone party thrown in 1979, which epitomised the collaborative scene of the time. It was at Canal Zone that Basquiat met prominent members of the art world and moved from unknown graffiti artist into someone in the spotlight.
“We’ve invited local resident arists, we’ll have spray cans at the ready,” says curator Maisa Al Qassemi of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi's Canal Zone Remix is at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Thursday April 18, from 8pm. Free entry to all. Basquiat's Cabra is on view at Louvre Abu Dhabi until October
Dubai World Cup Carnival Thursday race card
6.30pm: Dubai Millennium Stakes Group Three US$200,000 (Turf) 2,000m
7.05pm: Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,600m
7.40pm: UAE Oaks Group Three $250,000 (Dirt) 1,900m
8.15pm: Zabeel Mile Group Two $250,000 (T) 1,600m
8.50pm: Meydan Sprint Group Two $250,000 (T) 1,000m
9.25pm: Handicap $135,000 (D) 1,400m
10pm: Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,600m
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
The Pope's itinerary
Sunday, February 3, 2019 - Rome to Abu Dhabi
1pm: departure by plane from Rome / Fiumicino to Abu Dhabi
10pm: arrival at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
Monday, February 4
12pm: welcome ceremony at the main entrance of the Presidential Palace
12.20pm: visit Abu Dhabi Crown Prince at Presidential Palace
5pm: private meeting with Muslim Council of Elders at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
6.10pm: Inter-religious in the Founder's Memorial
Tuesday, February 5 - Abu Dhabi to Rome
9.15am: private visit to undisclosed cathedral
10.30am: public mass at Zayed Sports City – with a homily by Pope Francis
12.40pm: farewell at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
1pm: departure by plane to Rome
5pm: arrival at the Rome / Ciampino International Airport
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Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
UAE SQUAD
Ali Khaseif, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Khalid Essa, Bandar Al Ahbabi, Salem Rashid, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Mohammed Al Attas, Walid Abbas, Hassan Al Mahrami, Mahmoud Khamis, Alhassan Saleh, Ali Salmeen, Yahia Nader, Abdullah Ramadan, Majed Hassan, Abdullah Al Naqbi, Fabio De Lima, Khalil Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Muhammed Jumah, Yahya Al Ghassani, Caio Canedo, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri
Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
