Managerial mishandling
Cosmin Olaroiu's decision to move to Al Ahli rocked the club, but it happened in early July. That Al Ain never really recovered owes much to the board's indecision: Jorge Fossati, whose tactics and training soon rankled, was an ill-informed appointment. Dumped on the eve of the new season, it then took another two weeks to install Quique Sanchez Flores, meaning the players began the campaign massively undercooked. A costly period of instability, indeed.
Olaroiu saga
While the players will no doubt argue the club’s long, drawn-out battle with Olaroiu has not affected performances on the pitch, it has proved an unwanted distraction.
Al Ain's season has struggled against the backdrop of a very public spat with their former manager, who last week was handed a suspended three-month prison sentence for reportedly defaming the Garden City club.
Reduced resources
The UAE champions began the season with arguably a better squad than the one that lifted a second successive title, but it has been quickly laid bare.
First, through injuries to key personnel – Alex Brosque, Mirel Radoi and Omar Abdulrahman – and then by offloading star name Michel Bastos.
Deemed good enough for the upper echelons of Italian football, the Brazilian was afforded only 12 league matches by Al Ain.
Leaky defence
Outwardly, the summer acquisition of Khalid Essa, the highly rated UAE goalkeeper, seemed an astute purchase, but the former Al Jazira man has had a season to forget.
The most recent blunder, last Friday, gifted Al Nasr the points.
Sanchez Flores has also had problems at left-back, with no fewer than three different options failing to impress there.
Bastos was an obvious candidate.
Away-day blues
Once as devastating on the road as they were at home, Al Ain no longer hold fear for opponents when they roll into town. They have a solitary victory from nine away league matches this season, losing five.
To underscore the point: they lost four matches altogether last term. Also, last season they won 10 away fixtures from 13, while in 2011/12 they were defeated once in 10 away outings.
jmcauley@thenational.ae
Follow our sports coverage on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE
Scoreline
Chelsea 1
Azpilicueta (36')
West Ham United 1
Hernandez (73')
Frida%20
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Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The%20specs
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
