A place in the first final of the new, supersized Fifa Club World Cup awaits either the reigning European champions, or the most decorated club in European Cup history.
In Wednesday’s glamour semi-final in New York, Paris Saint-Germain may have the stronger momentum, but history and aura lean towards Real Madrid. We pick out the night’s most significant – and spikiest – duels.
Luis Enrique v Xabi Alonso
Luis Enrique was a Real Madrid player who went on to find his greatest fulfilment in the jersey of Barcelona. Xabi Alonso spent part of his childhood at Barcelona and would give Real Madrid five of his peak years as a masterly midfielder.
At 43, he’s back there again, appointed as manager last month with his status as the brightest young manager in the long, distinguished line of elite Spanish tacticians secured. Luis Enrique, 55, ranks among the very best of that line.
Victory at the Club World Cup would give PSG a clean, quadruple sweep of titles for the season, including the most cherished prize – the club’s first Uefa Champions League.
It’s a tally of trophies to match the treble Luis Enrique guided Barcelona to as manager there a decade ago. Alonso, with only two full seasons under his belt as a senior coach, already has a double to his name, from his remarkable Bayer Leverkusen 2023/24 campaign.
There’s a steel to both. But where Luis Enrique can be abrasive, Alonso presents as impeccably urbane. They share a sharply defined set of guiding principles, leavened with pragmatism.
“I prefer to have possession in the opposition half, but we can be a resilient team too,” said Luis Enrique after a tough quarter-final against Bayern Munich earned the meeting with Madrid. “I’ve not come here with a list of demands,” said Alonso, “but to work hard, be dynamic and flexible.”
Kylian Mbappe v the PSG hierarchy
Mbappe spent seven seasons at PSG, signed as the most expensive teenager in the history of the sport, rising to become the all-time record goalscorer at the club and frequently entrusted with the captaincy. So far, so legendary.
But his long relationship with PSG was also punctuated by repeated episodes of restlessness, with several would-be moves to Real Madrid negotiated and then abated. Mbappe’s PSG epoch also snagged on a major professional frustration – the club’s failure to win the European Cup.
Mbappe finally joined 15-time European Cup-winners Madrid last summer, having declined to trigger a one-year extension on a PSG contract that had made him the world’s best-paid player.
The final severance details remain the subject of a tense, unresolved legal wrangle between the France captain, whose advisers claim he is owed around €55 million by PSG, and the club.
So there are grudges at play this evening. “The star now is the team,” said PSG president Nasser Al Khelaifi once Mbappe, once the hero of the Parc des Princes, had departed.
And that Mbappe-free team now has the most desired star above the badge on its jersey, symbol of their first European Cup title, achieved in May. Mbappe, who reached a losing Champions League final and two semis in his Paris years, has yet to lift that trophy.
He came to the Club World Cup with a virus, missing early matches but has shaken it off and he made his case to make a first start under Alonso with a spectacular goal in the 3-2 quarter-final win over Borussia Dortmund.
He will gladly note that suspension means PSG are without two senior defenders, Willian Pacho and Lucas Hernandez.
Kvicha Kvaratskhelia v Trent Alexander-Arnold
Two of the most seismic movers in the 2025 transfer year so far. The Georgia winger, a breakout star at Napoli, joined PSG in January and galvanised their bid to claim the Champions League, decisive throughout the knockout phase and on the scoresheet, brilliantly, in the 5-0 rout of Inter Milan in the final.
Trent Alexander-Arnold left Liverpool, the club he had grown up with, last month, debuting for Madrid at the Club World Cup.
If Kvaratskhelia, with his low centre of gravity and his teasing dribbles, can be like an old-fashioned sort of a winger, England’s Alexander-Arnold has become one of the modern game’s great innovators, rewriting the job definition of full-back to embrace the duties of the traditional central midfielder as well as those of the wide attacker.
Should Alonso channel the best of Alexander-Arnold, Madridistas will come to believe their new recruit is three players in one.
The long-term solution to a gap at right-back; the precise, visionary passer they have yearned for since the retirement, last year, of Toni Kroos; and a set-piece genius with the combined excellence, striking a dead ball, of previous, famous British imports to Madrid, David Beckham and Gareth Bale.
But Alexander-Arnold’s progressive instincts do leave gaps for a sharp opponent to exploit. And in previous meetings – Liverpool against Napoli in 2023; Liverpool against PSG in March this year – Kvaratskhelia has often troubled Alexander-Arnold with his speed and nimble feet.
Aurelien Tchouameni against PSG’s Iberian wizards
The manager of France, Didier Deschamps, is expected in New York, to view from the VIP seats two of the most relevant club sides to his national team.
While PSG’s success, and their free scoring in particular, is a blessing for Les Bleus – PSG’s front three usually includes at least two of the three French forwards Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue and Bradley Barcola – their formidable midfield trio of Fabian Ruiz, of Spain, and Vitinha and Joao Neves, both of Portugal, are a trio Deschamps can only watch with envy.
Much of the task of disrupting their slick passing angles will fall to Tchouameni, the one true anchor midfielder in the likely line-ups of both sides.
Tchouameni – 25 years old and with 41 caps for France – has heard from Alonso that he has a vital part in his plans, but in a Madrid squad heavily leaned towards attack, the deepest midfielder can often be forgiven for feeling his job is a thankless one.
Last season, Tchouameni was on occasion booed by home supporters for perceived shortcomings in his shielding role. He was also cast, frequently, as an emergency firefighter, pushed into service in the centre-back position to cover for injuries.
A performance of authority from Tchouameni would make a significant statement for the Xabi era – and be appreciated by sceptical Madridistas and by Deschamps.
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Leaderboard
63 - Mike Lorenzo-Vera (FRA)
64 - Rory McIlroy (NIR)
66 - Jon Rahm (ESP)
67 - Tom Lewis (ENG), Tommy Fleetwood (ENG)
68 - Rafael Cabrera-Bello (ESP), Marcus Kinhult (SWE)
69 - Justin Rose (ENG), Thomas Detry (BEL), Francesco Molinari (ITA), Danny Willett (ENG), Li Haotong (CHN), Matthias Schwab (AUT)
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Coming 2 America
Directed by: Craig Brewer
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones
3/5 stars
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
'My Son'
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
Rating: 2/5
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West Asia Premiership
Dubai Hurricanes 58-10 Dubai Knights Eagles
Dubai Tigers 5-39 Bahrain
Jebel Ali Dragons 16-56 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
FFP EXPLAINED
What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.
What the rules dictate?
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.
What are the penalties?
There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Three-day coronation
Royal purification
The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.
The crown
Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.
The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.
The audience
On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.
The procession
The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.
Meet the people
On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.
if you go
The flights
Air Astana flies direct from Dubai to Almaty from Dh2,440 per person return, and to Astana (via Almaty) from Dh2,930 return, both including taxes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Ritz-Carlton Almaty cost from Dh1,944 per night including taxes; and in Astana the new Ritz-Carlton Astana (www.marriott) costs from Dh1,325; alternatively, the new St Regis Astana costs from Dh1,458 per night including taxes.
When to visit
March-May and September-November
Visas
Citizens of many countries, including the UAE do not need a visa to enter Kazakhstan for up to 30 days. Contact the nearest Kazakhstan embassy or consulate.
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Which honey takes your fancy?
Al Ghaf Honey
The Al Ghaf tree is a local desert tree which bears the harsh summers with drought and high temperatures. From the rich flowers, bees that pollinate this tree can produce delicious red colour honey in June and July each year
Sidr Honey
The Sidr tree is an evergreen tree with long and strong forked branches. The blossom from this tree is called Yabyab, which provides rich food for bees to produce honey in October and November. This honey is the most expensive, but tastiest
Samar Honey
The Samar tree trunk, leaves and blossom contains Barm which is the secret of healing. You can enjoy the best types of honey from this tree every year in May and June. It is an historical witness to the life of the Emirati nation which represents the harsh desert and mountain environments
Company%20profile
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