ABU DHABI // Superstars Daniel Alves, Robinho and Alexandre Pato will take centre stage in a youthful Brazil squad for tonight's friendly international against Iran at Zayed Sports City.
Brazil, still reeling from their unexpectedly early quarter-final defeat by Holland at this year's World Cup finals in South Africa, are undertaking an extensive rebuilding operation to ensure that they peak in good time to put on a solid show on home soil in four years time.
Mano Menezes, recently installed as the latest coach of the five-time world champions, has been given a fair degree of latitude by his federation's normally impatient hierachy to blood as many new players as he can before the flamboyant South Americans welcome other leading football nations to their football-mad country.
Mano has been told to forget the long-standing dictate that Brazil have to win every match in order to experiment in his early days as coach.
Last night he was putting his restructured squad through their paces in advance of tonight's game. However, the old win-at-all-costs approach remains uppermost in the minds of the more experienced members of the squad, despite the softer brief given to Mano.
Robinho, the AC Milan forward, believes victory tonight is what matters as he said: "We must respect them like other national teams. It will be a difficult match for us. We should focus primarily on winning."
Sandro, the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder, sees the match as being important to Mano and the players as they continue to gel together as a unit.
He said: "This time working together is useful because we have big goals for the national team in the coming years."
Five Brazilians are likely to win their first senior caps at some stage of the fixture. Wesley, the Werder Bremen forward, accompanies the home-based quartet of Elias, Neto, Guiliano and Mariano as Brazil try to follow the successful example of Germany last summer in forming a new-look squad for the World Cup.
Those newcomers will seek to blend in with the more familiar figures of Robinho, the former Manchester City striker, Pato, his Milan teammate, Alves, the Barcelona defender and Lucas, the Liverpool midfielder. Alex, the formidable Chelsea centre-back, will miss the match after picking up a thigh injury during Sunday's Premier League win against Arsenal.
Rodrigo Paiva, the director of communications of the Brazil FA, said: "When our president announced the appointment of our new coach he urged our many of supporters back home to accept that we would not always win."
Nevertheless Brazil are not expecting any setbacks on neutral UAE territory tonight against their Iranian opponents. Mano is counting on a second victory to follow his debut win away to the United States and to precede what he hopes will be a hat-trick of early triumphs against Ukraine in England on Monday when they play in Derby.
Mano said through an interpreter: "The main idea is to integrate players who play in Brazil with those who play in Europe to form a new team who it is hoped will be strong when the World Cup takes place in our country in 2014."
* With agencies
Cultural fiesta
What: The Al Burda Festival
When: November 14 (from 10am)
Where: Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi
The Al Burda Festival is a celebration of Islamic art and culture, featuring talks, performances and exhibitions. Organised by the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, this one-day event opens with a session on the future of Islamic art. With this in mind, it is followed by a number of workshops and “masterclass” sessions in everything from calligraphy and typography to geometry and the origins of Islamic design. There will also be discussions on subjects including ‘Who is the Audience for Islamic Art?’ and ‘New Markets for Islamic Design.’ A live performance from Kuwaiti guitarist Yousif Yaseen should be one of the highlights of the day.
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.”
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
