Bert van Marwijk, the Holland coach, has drawn a line under a potential feud in the camp after calling a team meeting to address Robin van Persie's angry reaction to being substituted in the 2-1 win over Slovakia on Monday.
Van Marwijk spoke to national broadcaster NOS after Dutch media reported that the striker said Wesley Sneijder, the midfielder, should have been brought off in the last-16 match instead of him.
The dispute is the first to erupt in the Dutch camp at the World Cup and comes just days before they take on Brazil in the quarter-finals.
"I will never accept anything that could upset the next match," Van Marwijk said.
"I spoke to Robin and he is supposed to have said something about Wesley. I've spoken to Wesley and after that I called the team together ... told them what I think and then drew a line under it."
Previous Dutch campaigns have often been derailed by infighting, but the team have appeared unified in South Africa.
"I've always said I don't mind if something happens - that can make you stronger - but I don't like to leave problems dangling," Van Marwijk said. "It's over. For everybody."
For his part, Van Persie said his anger was partly aimed at himself for missing so many chances at the World Cup.
The Arsenal forward was a contender to be one of the tournament's leading scorers but has only managed one goal in four matches in South Africa.
"I wanted to finish the game. I thought they would take risks in the last 10 minutes and I wanted to exploit that," Van Persie said. "I could see spaces opening up and I wanted to use them, so I was a bit shocked when I had to go off."
Van Persie is convinced he will rediscover his goalscoring touch and that playing for Arsenal has taught him to persevere.
"I am not scoring and that eats away at me - at every striker, I think," Van Persie said. "I've had a few small chances. I just want to score.
"One thing I learned in England is that you can miss chances or have a bad first touch, but as a striker there will always be another chance."
Van Persie only returned to international football last month after a six-month layoff because of a right ankle injury he suffered against Italy in November.
But his scoring touch appeared to have survived the break as he hit four goals in three warm-up games before the World Cup to raise hopes of a prolific tournament for the Oranje frontman.
Instead he has misfired in South Africa, despite heading an attack that also includes Arjen Robben, Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart and Dirk Kuyt. Robben, a goalscorer in the win over Slovakia, defended Van Persie and his anger at the substitution.
"It's difficult for Robin to get free," Robben said. "You are tightly marked at a World Cup, we shouldn't make a big deal out of it." Van Marwijk, meanwhile, feels his side will be the underdogs for Friday's mouth-watering encounter against Brazil, the five-time world champions.
"Against Brazil, perhaps we might be the underdogs for the first time in South Africa," he said. "But we are here for one reason, to get the big prize.
"We have to believe in it. People might have laughed at us when we said we were capable of winning the World Cup.
"But you have to show a real mentality, a constant focus. I think we are showing that."
Dunga, the Brazil coach, knows that things will start to get serious against Holland after a relatively easy path to the quarter-finals, culminating with a 3-0 last-16 victory over South American rivals Chile on Monday night.
"We know Holland are a very difficult team to play against," Dunga said.
"Their football is actually very similar to South American football. They don't try to stay defending and rely on long balls. They have technical quality and we will need to be ready for that. It's a solid team."
"It's a world football classic," added Robinho, the forward who scored his first World Cup goal in the match against Chile. "It's going to be like a final."
* AP
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First Test: October 2-6, at Visakhapatnam
Second Test: October 10-14, at Maharashtra
Third Test: October 19-23, at Ranchi
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
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
The drill
Recharge as needed, says Mat Dryden: “We try to make it a rule that every two to three months, even if it’s for four days, we get away, get some time together, recharge, refresh.” The couple take an hour a day to check into their businesses and that’s it.
Stick to the schedule, says Mike Addo: “We have an entire wall known as ‘The Lab,’ covered with colour-coded Post-it notes dedicated to our joint weekly planner, content board, marketing strategy, trends, ideas and upcoming meetings.”
Be a team, suggests Addo: “When training together, you have to trust in each other’s abilities. Otherwise working out together very quickly becomes one person training the other.”
Pull your weight, says Thuymi Do: “To do what we do, there definitely can be no lazy member of the team.”
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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.”
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
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Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
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Starring: Keira Knightley, Dominic West
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