Headlines across Europe on the penultimate day of the transfer window are usually about individuals hiking up their salaries, clubs knocking off millions from a fee.
Part of the appeal of late-window negotiations is the element of billionaire brinkmanship. But in Spanish football, where in the previous trading session in excess of €180 million (Dh891.7m) was shelled out by Real Madrid and Barcelona on Gareth Bale and Neymar alone, the defining image of the last week has been one of penury, and the plight of Racing Santander.
Racing, a club with a hundred years of highs and lows in their history, were punching well above their weight simply to be in the quarter-final of the Copa del Rey.
They are in the third tier. They trailed Real Sociedad, a Primera Liga club, 3-1 from the away leg but had already gained much admiration for defeating Sevilla and Almeria to reach the last eight.
The respect felt across Spain for Racing was all the greater because of the conditions under which their players were working. They have not been paid for four months.
On Thursday, at just past nine o’clock Spanish time, they said “Enough”. Following a squad meeting, consultation with the Spanish footballers’ trade union, the AFE, and talks with the club’s supporters’ groups, Racing’s players decided they would use the event to protest against the board, who they hold responsible for the decline of an institution that, until the first of their successive relegations in 2012, had spent 14 out of the previous 15 campaigns in the top flight.
Sociedad kicked off, but Racing players merely stood in a line around their half of the centre circle. When the ball went out of play 30 seconds later, the home XI walked off the pitch: Tie abandoned, Sociedad winners by default.
Yesterday, the Spanish football federation banned Racing from next year’s Cup while an emergency shareholders meeting was called, with president Angel Lavin’s position no longer tenable. He was not at the game, fearing embarrassment. By the end of the night, he could hardly avoid realising the huge support the players had garnered.
The gesture tapped into exasperation around Spain, where clubs’ debts have spiralled and the inequalities between the haves and have-nots yawn wider and wider.
Three years ago, Racing appeared the beneficiaries of the kind of investment from the Arabian Gulf that has transformed the likes of Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City, albeit on a minor scale, when Ashan Ali Syed, head of Western Gulf Advisory, bid for a majority stake in the club. His commitment, and funds, quickly became less visible and the club fell to the third tier as it slid towards bankruptcy.
The symbolic protest was a desperate move by the players, the fans’ endorsement a sign of how far their anger stretches.
“We had to support the idea,” said Luis Rubiales, head of the AFE.
His union has plenty of members elsewhere in Spain chasing delayed wage payments. Several Spanish footballers watched their fellow professionals do something blatantly unprofessional, yet looked on with a great deal of empathy.
sports@thenational.ae
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
West Asia Premiership
Dubai Hurricanes 58-10 Dubai Knights Eagles
Dubai Tigers 5-39 Bahrain
Jebel Ali Dragons 16-56 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
Pari
Produced by: Clean Slate Films (Anushka Sharma, Karnesh Sharma) & KriArj Entertainment
Director: Prosit Roy
Starring: Anushka Sharma, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Ritabhari Chakraborty, Rajat Kapoor, Mansi Multani
Three stars
'The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting up a Generation for Failure'
Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, Penguin Randomhouse
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Engine: 80 kWh four-wheel-drive
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 402bhp
Torque: 760Nm
Price: From Dh280,000
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
HAEMOGLOBIN DISORDERS EXPLAINED
Thalassaemia is part of a family of genetic conditions affecting the blood known as haemoglobin disorders.
Haemoglobin is a substance in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and a lack of it triggers anemia, leaving patients very weak, short of breath and pale.
The most severe type of the condition is typically inherited when both parents are carriers. Those patients often require regular blood transfusions - about 450 of the UAE's 2,000 thalassaemia patients - though frequent transfusions can lead to too much iron in the body and heart and liver problems.
The condition mainly affects people of Mediterranean, South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle Eastern origin. Saudi Arabia recorded 45,892 cases of carriers between 2004 and 2014.
A World Health Organisation study estimated that globally there are at least 950,000 'new carrier couples' every year and annually there are 1.33 million at-risk pregnancies.
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2.0-litre%20four-cyl%20turbo%20%2B%20mild%20hybrid%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E204hp%20at%205%2C800rpm%20%2B23hp%20hybrid%20boost%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E320Nm%20at%201%2C800rpm%20%2B205Nm%20hybrid%20boost%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E9-speed%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFuel%20consumption%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E7.3L%2F100km%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENovember%2FDecember%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh205%2C000%20(estimate)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Background: Chemical Weapons
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
Disposing of non-recycleable masks
Use your ‘black bag’ bin at home
Do not put them in a recycling bin
Take them home with you if there is no litter bin
- No need to bag the mask
