Manchester City fan Gary Butterfield is crossing his fingers for a positive result in Saturday's Champions League final – but first he needs a negative one in a Covid test that will clear his way to travel to the match.
A season ticket holder at City since 1984, Mr Butterfield, 55, is one of the 6,000 City fans with a ticket for the showdown in Porto.
“I’ve been through plenty of downs and now I’m hopefully reaping the rewards,” he said of his years as a City fan.
“To say in years to come that you were there, after the journey we’ve been on, it’s something greatly to look forward to.”
City's march to the summit – spurred by heavy investment from Abu Dhabi United Group, which bought the club in 2008 – is a vindication for fans who stuck by the team while it languished in mediocrity in the 1990s and 2000s.
The revival for City after years of domination by Manchester United comes alongside a wider transformation in the city’s fortunes, helped by investment in the Etihad Stadium and its surrounding area.
“Manchester’s been on the up for a while now,” said Labour MP Jeff Smith, a City fan who represents Manchester Withington in the UK Parliament.
“What’s happened around the Etihad Stadium in east Manchester has been fantastic for the city. It’s taken what was quite a run-down area of the city into the modern times and into a new era.”
After a year in which Manchester was battered by the pandemic, the fan community that helped many people through the dark days of lockdown is now gearing up for the final, with restrictions at their lightest for nearly a year.
Bars, cinemas and living rooms are available again for fans to meet up and watch the game against Chelsea. And the trip to Portugal became possible after the UK lifted its ban on foreign travel on May 17.
City fans gear up for whirlwind Porto trip
City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, the UAE's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, is covering the cost of supporters' flights to Portugal.
Collecting their paperwork for the final outside the Etihad on Tuesday, City fans saw the trip as a reward for their loyal support over the years.
Tickets were allocated based on a loyalty points system to favour longstanding supporters.
Paul Ramsden, 69, one of those with a ticket for Porto, has been watching City since 1963. Another travelling fan, 56-year-old David Perks, got his ticket through a colleague.
If we win then I expect there will be impromptu street parties all over Manchester
Chris Phillips, 71, is using the opportunity to take a week’s holiday in Portugal.
Flying out on Wednesday, he was booked on a Ryanair flight rather than one of the official City-arranged trips. “I just thought – why not?,” he said.
Fans on the official package will be going on a day trip and returning to Manchester on Sunday morning.
Others are going to Portugal without a ticket for the match, to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy a visit to one of the few countries on the UK's green list.
Frank Wolf, 69, spent more than £400 ($565) on Covid tests for his three-man travelling party and will be anxiously awaiting his result before Saturday’s flight. Reflecting City fans’ reputation for self-deprecation and persisting through adversity, Mr Phillips said: “We’ve always moaned about City.”
Etihad campus makes a mark in Manchester
City moved to their current stadium in 2003, leaving behind their old Maine Road ground, which today gives its name to a chip shop opposite the Etihad.
A short tram ride from the city centre, the Etihad complex – which began life as the venue for the 2002 Commonwealth Games – entails much more than the stadium itself.
City’s training facilities have 16 pitches and are used not only by the first team but also by youth players.
Football courses run by the British Study Centre include language teaching and a curriculum on the football business developed partly by Manchester City officials.
“Our students actually have access to all of the facilities used by the first team,” said Charlie Tweddle, the BSC’s director of operations.
The courses were cancelled this year because of the pandemic, but past students have come from the US, South America, Africa and the Middle East.
“It’s a really good international mix we get on the programme,” Mr Tweddle said.
The Etihad complex helps to make the football industry a significant player in the economy of Greater Manchester, an area of about 2.8 million people.
Manchester was once the world’s “first industrial city” but has undergone major economic changes in the past 25 years.
More affordable in which to live than London, Manchester has a large tech and digital sector that employs about 10,000 people.
Thousands of BBC employees are based in Salford, a borough of Greater Manchester. Amazon opened offices in Manchester last year and Google has a presence in the city.
Meanwhile, United and City are global brands that bring in millions of pounds from TV rights, sponsorship and sales of tickets and merchandise.
An official City shirt costs £65, while shoppers in Manchester’s Arndale centre could spend £20 on a City-branded duvet cover or an autobiography by Belgian defender and former club captain Vincent Kompany.
Aside from United and City, grassroots football is thought to add about £290m a year to Manchester’s economy.
“It's obviously great for Manchester as a city to have arguably the best team in Europe at the moment,” said City fan Ric Turner, 43, who runs an online fan forum called Bluemoon.
“The rivalry with United has made it perhaps the football capital of the world, which can only benefit the region.”
City’s rise to global status
City’s growing success has given the club a greater international status, which many fans see as a good thing.
“When I go abroad, I don’t just see Barcelona and United and Liverpool’s shirts, I see City shirts,” Mr Smith said. “For me, as a born-and-bred City fan, that’s a source of great pride.”
Sue and Rob Booth got engaged at half time in a Manchester City game in 1976, married on the day of the Manchester derby in 1980 and have watched City games with fans all over the world since.
“Wherever we travel, we link up with a supporters’ club,” said Mr Booth, 62. Abu Dhabi was one of those destinations.
On Saturday, the couple will watch the Champions League final at home. “It’s paradise for us,” Mr Booth said.
Mr Turner, the Bluemoon editor, said the club retained a strong local support despite its global status.
But he said there were some who felt that City fans had become impatient, even spoilt, as a result of the team’s success in recent years.
“There is danger of us losing the humility and self-deprecating humour which once defined us as a fanbase,” he said.
The club's relationship with fans was frayed by the aborted Super League proposal in April, which sparked outrage well beyond the world of football.
But Mr Smith said there was an understanding in Manchester that City were not the ringleaders in the Super League fiasco.
“I think it’s kind of been forgiven now, to be honest – as long as it doesn’t happen again,” he said.
The Champions League is the one trophy missing from the glittering collection assembled by City in recent years.
Five of the last 10 Premier League titles have gone to City, but their European campaigns have ended in a series of disappointing defeats.
That could change on Saturday when a victory over Chelsea would make City the sixth English team to lift the trophy, 53 years after United became the first.
“If we win,” Mr Turner said, “then I expect there will be impromptu street parties all over Manchester."
It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
Under-21 European Championship Final
Germany 1 Spain 0
Weiser (40')
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
CHELSEA SQUAD
Arrizabalaga, Bettinelli, Rudiger, Christensen, Silva, Chalobah, Sarr, Azpilicueta, James, Kenedy, Alonso, Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic, Saul, Barkley, Ziyech, Pulisic, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, Werner, Havertz, Lukaku.
PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
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Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
more from Janine di Giovanni
'HIJRAH%3A%20IN%20THE%20FOOTSTEPS%20OF%20THE%20PROPHET'
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Jawan
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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1.
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United States
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2.
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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6.
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Canada
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7.
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Singapore
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Australia
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9.
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
Match info:
Manchester City 2
Sterling (8'), Walker (52')
Newcastle United 1
Yedlin (30')
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs: 2018 Maserati Ghibli
Price, base / as tested: Dh269,000 / Dh369,000
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 355hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 4,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.9L / 100km
SPECS
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BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
The biog
Name: Greg Heinricks
From: Alberta, western Canada
Record fish: 56kg sailfish
Member of: International Game Fish Association
Company: Arabian Divers and Sportfishing Charters
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
FIGHT%20CARD
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Pad Man
Dir: R Balki
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte
Three-and-a-half stars
'Will%20of%20the%20People'
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RESULTS
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m
Winner: JAP Almahfuz, Fernando Jara (jockey), Irfan Ellahi (trainer).
5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh90,000 1,400m
Winner: AF Momtaz, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi.
6pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 1,400m
Winner: Yaalail, Fernando Jara, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Championship Listed (PA) Dh180,000 1,600m
Winner: Ihtesham, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami.
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 1,600m
Winner: Dahess D’Arabie, Fernando Jara, Helal Al Alawi.
7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 2.200m
Winner: Ezz Al Rawasi, Connor Beasley, Helal Al Alawi.
ADCC AFC Women’s Champions League Group A fixtures
October 3: v Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC
October 6: v Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC
October 9: v Sabah FA
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
