Barcelona and Sevilla did as expected on Tuesday night in the Champions League, comfortably beating teams whose only aim was to reach the group stage. Barca beat Dinamo Kiev 2-0, while Sevilla destroyed Glasgow Rangers 4-1 at Ibrox, yet so predictable are they, the group stages have been heavily criticised.
The Champions League encapsulates glamour. It is an advertiser's dream. The European competition's popularity is unsurpassed globally, with big matches regularly attracting television audiences in excess of 500 million. Multi-nationals like Ford, Sony and Mastercard swear by it, while new sponsors like Italy-based bank UniCredit have seen their profile soar by association, even though consumers in huge markets like the UK, France, Scandinavia and Iberia cannot use its services.
The Champions League succeeds as a marketing dream precisely because it was set up by marketing men, but danger lurks in that predictability which the biggest clubs and big name attractions crave. By Matchday Six, more than half of the teams already know their fate. The same argument could be levelled at any domestic league, yet attendances in the Champions League tumble much faster for insignificant games because there is seldom any history or rivalry between the competing teams.
Tuesday's results did throw up some surprises such as Fiorentina's 2-0 win against Liverpool, but the competition is formatted to safeguard the elite. It was not always so. When Barca last met Kiev in the Champions League in 1997-98, the Ukrainian champions won 3-0 at home and - staggeringly - 4-0 in the Camp Nou, thanks to a first half Andrei Shevchenko hat-trick. In 1992-93, Barcelona were the reigning European Cup holders and were knocked out 4-3 on aggregate in the second round by CSKA Moscow.
Such has been the gradual drift of wealth towards the Western European giants, similar results would be unimaginable today. The Ukraine league is wealthy and two of its strongest teams, Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk, met in the semi-finals of last season's Uefa Cup - a second tier competition for second tier footballing nations, stocked with teams that failed to overcome the big names in the Champions League.
It is also the only competition where teams from major footballing nations like Germany and France are likely to see success, such is the hold which the English, Spanish and Italian clubs have on the Champions League. No club from outside Europe's three strongest domestic leagues has reached the semi-final since Holland's PSV Eindhoven in 2005. Just seven clubs from those three countries have dominated. Manchester United, Barcelona, Chelsea and Liverpool, Milan, Arsenal and Villarreal have occupied the 16 semi-final spaces in the past four years. Giants of yore like Bayern Munich and Ajax find they have a glass ceiling. Bayern, with their four European Cups, 60,000 average crowds and a home in the richest city of Europe's biggest economy, admitted as much after they were swatted 4-0 like an annoying fly by Barca last season.
The possibility of a Porto versus Monaco final as in 2004 seems more remote than ever and while Uefa president Michel Platini is well-intentioned to pursue equality through sporting rather than commercial excellence, his job is virtually impossible when the two are so closely intertwined. He wants to reduce the number of English and Spanish teams in the Champions League from four to three, but he will meet opposition.
It is refreshing to see names like Rubin Kazan (Russia), Unirea Urziceni (Romania), APOEL (Cyprus) and AZ Alkmaar (Holland) alongside far bigger names in this season's group stages after Platini oversaw the re-formatting of the final qualifying stage to give lesser lights a better chance. Rubin held Inter Milan 1-1 and Unirea drew with Stuttgart by the same score on Tuesday, but the chance of either progressing beyond the group stage is limited.
When the power lies with the big teams and not Uefa, the European governing body can only push so far when the finances of clubs like United are geared to reaching the final stages of the Champions League every year. There is one striking anomaly. Real Madrid have been unable to go beyond the last 16 for the last five years. amitten@thenational.ae
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
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
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
THE APPRENTICE
Director: Ali Abbasi
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Maria Bakalova, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 3/5
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Engine: 80 kWh four-wheel-drive
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 402bhp
Torque: 760Nm
Price: From Dh280,000
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl, 48V hybrid
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 325bhp
Torque: 450Nm
Price: Dh289,000
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
