Egypt’s Fifa-appointed Football Association finds itself grappling with the same problems that plagued the previous administration, with the country's domestic league again thrown into chaos over security concerns.
Appointed in July, the five-man association has announced the indefinite postponement of the league’s most eagerly-anticipated fixture - the Cairo derby between Al Ahly and arch-rivals Zamalek that was to take place last weekend - on the advice of security officials.
Al Ahly responded by refusing to play any Egyptian Premier League matches until after the derby is played, including one against Al Gouna slated for Wednesday.
The EFA is standing its ground and on Sunday named the match officials to take charge of the Al Gouna-Al Ahly tie on the Red Sea coast. If Al Ahly fail to fulfill the fixture, the 41-time national champions stand to be docked six points and fined 200,000 Egyptian pounds (Dh45,347).
Zamalek are currently second in the table with 10 points from four matches. Al Ahly are third with nine points from three games. The two Cairo teams are Egypt’s most storied and decorated clubs.
Security concerns have cast a dark shadow over Egyptian football since the death in 2012 of more than 70 fans in a post-match riot in the Mediterranean city of Port Said, one of the world’s deadliest football tragedies. Most of the victims were Al Ahly fans. Three years later, about two dozen fans died in a stampede outside a military-owned stadium in a Cairo suburb after police fired tear gas on fans waiting in line to see the match.
Egypt's police and security forces have always had a say in how football in the country is run, but the 2012 and 2015 tragedies have given them veto power over venues, the number of spectators allowed into stadiums as well the fate of fixtures designated as a security risk. That, in turn, meant that proceeding with a reliable schedule for fixtures was virtually impossible. Moreover, suspected bias by association officials in favor of one club or another has produced countless disputes.
"The security folks normally have intelligence that forces them to order the postponement of matches or changes in venue," said football writer Mahmoud Al Makhbazy of Cairo daily Al Akhbar. "But they never give details."
Over the past three weeks, two marathons, one that was to be held at a Red Sea resort and another in Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, have been cancelled at short notice, prompting speculation that the reasons were security-related.
Security has been heightened in Cairo and elsewhere in the country since small and quickly dispersed anti-government protests took place in the capital and four other provinces on September 20. The protests unleashed the biggest security crackdown in years, with the country’s chief prosecutor saying around 1,000 people were detained in connection with the protests.
Hundreds have been released since, but one rights group - the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms - has put the original number of arrests at more than 3,000, a figure that could not be verified by The National.
Street protests have been rare since a law banning them was adopted in 2013. Offenders face up to five years in prison.
On Monday, Al Ahly chairman Mahmoud Al Khateib, a star striker in the 1970s and 1980s, was meeting at his Cairo home with youth and sports minister Ashraf Sobhy to discuss the latest dispute. There was no immediate word on any agreements or concessions, but some analysts believe that Al Ahly could be persuaded to play Al Gouna on Wednesday as scheduled and Zamalek on October 28.
However, Zamalek’s maverick chairman Mortada Mansour has made it clear in a series of interviews that he would not accept any rearranged date against Al Ahly because it falls four days after the CAF Champions League round-of-32 second leg against Senegal’s Generation Foot.
Disputes between Al Ahly and Zamalek over the league’s schedule marred the last season, with EFA board members blamed for messing up the top-flight competition. Those officials were forced to step down after Egypt crashed out of the Africa Cup of Nations to South Africa at the last-16 stage.
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MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Rashford 36')
Liverpool 1 (Lallana 84')
Man of the match: Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
The biog
Name: Ayisha Abdulrahman Gareb
Age: 57
From: Kalba
Occupation: Mukrema, though she washes bodies without charge
Favourite things to do: Visiting patients at the hospital and give them the support they need.
Role model: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women's Union, Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation and President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood.
Profile of Bitex UAE
Date of launch: November 2018
Founder: Monark Modi
Based: Business Bay, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: Eight employees
Investors: Self-funded to date with $1m of personal savings
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
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On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
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Company profile: buybackbazaar.com
Name: buybackbazaar.com
Started: January 2018
Founder(s): Pishu Ganglani and Ricky Husaini
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech, micro finance
Initial investment: $1 million
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
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The years Ramadan fell in May
Why seagrass matters
- Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
- Marine nursery: Crucial habitat for juvenile fish, crustations, and invertebrates
- Biodiversity: Support species like sea turtles, dugongs, and seabirds
- Coastal protection: Reduce erosion and improve water quality
The Sky Is Pink
Director: Shonali Bose
Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim, Rohit Saraf
Three stars
THE DETAILS
Director: Milan Jhaveri
Producer: Emmay Entertainment and T-Series
Cast: John Abraham, Manoj Bajpayee
Rating: 2/5
In Full Flight: A Story of Africa and Atonement
John Heminway, Knopff
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What is an ETF?
An exchange traded fund is a type of investment fund that can be traded quickly and easily, just like stocks and shares. They come with no upfront costs aside from your brokerage's dealing charges and annual fees, which are far lower than on traditional mutual investment funds. Charges are as low as 0.03 per cent on one of the very cheapest (and most popular), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, with the maximum around 0.75 per cent.
There is no fund manager deciding which stocks and other assets to invest in, instead they passively track their chosen index, country, region or commodity, regardless of whether it goes up or down.
The first ETF was launched as recently as 1993, but the sector boasted $5.78 billion in assets under management at the end of September as inflows hit record highs, according to the latest figures from ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five largest providers BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, Deutsche Bank X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
While the best-known track major indices such as MSCI World, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, you can also invest in specific countries or regions, large, medium or small companies, government bonds, gold, crude oil, cocoa, water, carbon, cattle, corn futures, currency shifts or even a stock market crash.
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