Ali Mabkhout would rather not score any goals if it meant the UAE winning the Gulf Cup, the striker said ahead of their semi-final showdown with Iraq on Tuesday.
Mabkhout, and indeed the UAE team as a whole, have struggled for goals in the tournament so far, scoring just once in the group stage – and that from the penalty spot.
That proved enough to advance as Group A runners-up behind Oman thanks to three successive clean sheets.
Now into the knockout stages, the UAE will look to maintain their defensive solidity while adding more goals. Central to that will be striker Mabkhout, who scored the UAE’s solitary goal in the tournament.
However, the Al Jazira forward insists contributing to the team’s success far outweighs his own personal ambitions.
“Ali Mabkhout’s individual performance is not important as long as the team wins,” Mabkhout said.
“We have done well to be where we are today. That’s the most important thing. It’s not necessary I contribute or not.
“We are on the right track and even if we get the championship without me scoring any goal, that’s not a problem. What is more important is the title, and we can only achieve it as a team.”
UAE manager Alberto Zaccheroni is confident his side will find their goal-scoring touch against Iraq at the Jaber Al Ahmad International Stadium in Kuwait City.
“We reached the semi-final and that’s what we need to talk about,” he said.
“I think as long as we are achieving our goals it shouldn’t be a problem. We are developing as a team and I’m confident our performance will get stronger when we play Iraq.
“I have 45 years of experience in football and I always look for a way to play in a balanced way and not just defensive.
“I spoke to my players of our strategies and at the end we will be playing as a team, attack as a team and defend as a team.
“Iraq is a big team. They have players with experience, skills and physically stronger. We too have players with excellent skills and much capable of playing in various positions.”
Zaccheroni, who took charge of the UAE in October, has some selection dilemmas to address, with some players ruled out with illness and injuries.
Omar Abdulrahman, the playmaker and the UAE’s best player, has been cleared but his older sibling Mohammed and centre-back Ismail Ahmed are down with the flu, and are battling against time to recover.
“We have had very little time to prepare for the Gulf Cup and very little time for recovery between matches in the league phase of this tournament, but we are prepared well,” Zaccheroni said.
“It’s not unusual to have injured and tired players during a tournament. We have travelled with a full squad and I’m confident those provided the opportunity can step in and perform for the absent players.
“We are in the knockout format and it’s different to the results in the group phase,” the Italian added.
“This is a game in which the winner takes all. We have a different strategy. The good thing is we are still in the race. This is a big opportunity and my players are aware what it means to be in a final.”
Oman and Bahrain will contest the earlier Gulf Cup semi-final, with their match scheduled to kick-off at 6.15pm on Tuesday before the UAE take on Iraq at 9.30pm.
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
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.”
