Ghana have overcome the hurdle of a captain without a club and the lack of a proven goalscorer to canter to easy World Cup qualification, making them the first country to book their place from the African qualifiers.
A 2-0 home win over Sudan on Sunday ensured top place in their group, seven points clear of Mali and with two matches still to play. It means the Black Stars will play at a second successive World Cup finals next year in South Africa.
Key players have been Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari, who both scored on Sunday, but also surprisingly captain Stephen Appiah, who has been without a club for more than a year while battling with a long-standing knee injury.
"It is still special for us professionals to return home and bring joy to the people of Ghana," Essien said.
"Teamwork brought us success as in previous qualifiers. The people of Ghana wanted us to win and we did not let them down. What a fantastic feeling to be the first African country to qualify for the first World Cup to be staged in Africa."
Ghana have yet to concede a goal in four matches in the final round group and have benefited from a solid defence throughout the preliminary campaign.
But coach Milovan Rajevac has still to find a settled attack and in 10 qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup, the team has managed only 18 goals.
Injury to the likes of Asamoah Gyan, who plays in France, and Kwadwo Asamoah from Italian club Udinese, has exacerbated a problem the team have struggled with for years.
"We have a good group of talented players. It's a priceless honour for them to represent their country and qualify for a big competition like the World Cup," the Serbian said. "They are aware of what they can achieve and they have the quality to go on and on."
* Reuters
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.