PARIS // As King Eric, he was credited by adoring fans with magical qualities. Yesterday, the former footballer Eric Cantona, still idolised by followers of Manchester United, discovered that his powers did not extend to an ability to bring down the banking system.
Cantona's whimsical plan for a bloodless revolution, encouraging 20 million or more people globally to withdraw their money, appears to have attracted limited support.
French banks reported business as normal while the impact internationally is thought to have been negligible.
Amateur philosopher, scourge of officialdom and - since retiring from top-level sport - screen and stage actor, Cantona has always shown rebellious spirit.
But he is an improbable symbol of mass protest against capitalism. His earnings as a player were modest by the standards of 21st century superstars, who collect many times more than the £15,000-a-week (Dh87,000) basic wages he was paid at Old Trafford.
However, Cantona, now 44, has remained marketable after ending his playing career, winning lucrative deals with such companies as L'Oréal, Renault and Nike to augment his acting fees.
He wanted yesterday's so-called "bankrun" to cause havoc to banks all over the developed world. Although the immediate grievance was the French president Nicolas Sarkozy's controversial reform of the pension system, the initiative escalated into a rallying cry to ordinary people to punish the "corrupt, criminal" banking system for its role in the global financial crisis.
In an interview with the website of the French newspaper, Presse Océan, based in the Atlantic port of Nantes, Cantona - perhaps hoping to give a new dimension to one of his footballing nicknames'Eric the Red' - said: "If you want to talk about revolution, there is no point in taking up arms and killing people.
"There is something very simple we can do. The system is based on the power of the banks. If 20 million people withdraw their money, the system collapses. No need for weapons, or blood or anything."
With an eye to the potential impact on banks' stability if television footage showed long queues outside branches, a scriptwriter, Géraldine Feuillién, took up his challenge.
She launched a website, Bankrun2010, urging a day of cash withdrawals and, aided by the internet, the message soon spread to other parts of the world.
To the intense irritation of bankers and ministers, she suggested the international banking system had been so weakened by the world financial crisis that serious consequences could follow even if fewer than the millions envisaged by Cantona took part.
Clips of Cantona's interview have appeared on YouTube and been seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers, hardly the biggest hit the video-sharing site has experienced but enough to prompt politicians to accuse the former player of irresponsibility.
But criticism from authority has rarely troubled a man remembered for long bans for insulting French football administrators during a disciplinary hearing and a notorious kung fu assault on an English supporter who hurled abuse at him as he left the field having been sent off for violent conduct.
Cantona told the French newspaper Libération, itself founded by veterans of the Paris spring of 1968 when students joined workers in trying to topple Gen Charles de Gaulle, he would withdraw his own money. "In view of the strange solidarity which is developing, yes I will be there on December 7."
So was he there?
He spent much of the day avoiding the press, which took some pleasure in pointing that his wife Rachida Brakni, an actress, had recently earned useful income from the LCL bank for her role as a mortgage customer in a television advertisement.
French media reports quoted a BNP Paribas official at Albert, in the Somme, as saying Cantona had warned the bank last week that he would be making a withdrawal of more than Dh7,350, the threshold for such notice being given.
The bank was as prepared as it would be for any customer in similar circumstances, he said. A financial website said Cantona had also decided to take out a much larger sum - Dh3.67 million - from a different bank where he holds deposits.
Despite claims from the StopBanque protest group that at least 16,000 people in France were committed to removing deposits, few visibly carried out the threat yesterday.
In Paris, some protesters marched in fancy dress to a Parisian branch of Société Général to take out money which they then paid into the more favoured Crédit Coopératif.
The French budget minister Francois Baroin described Cantona's campaign as "comic if it were not tragic" but also, in an interview with France-Soir newspaper, "grotesque and irresponsible".
And the EU economic affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn, declaring himself a Manchester United supporter, told reporters: "I think Mr Cantona is a better footballer than he is an economist."
crandall@thenational.ae
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
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Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Director: Tim Miller
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis
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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
Under 19 World Cup
Group A: India, Japan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka
Group B: Australia, England, Nigeria, West Indies
Group C: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Scotland, Zimbabwe
Group D: Afghanistan, Canada, South Africa, UAE
UAE fixtures
Saturday, January 18, v Canada
Wednesday, January 22, v Afghanistan
Saturday, January 25, v South Africa
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The winners
Fiction
- ‘Amreekiya’ by Lena Mahmoud
- ‘As Good As True’ by Cheryl Reid
The Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award
- ‘Syrian and Lebanese Patricios in Sao Paulo’ by Oswaldo Truzzi; translated by Ramon J Stern
- ‘The Sound of Listening’ by Philip Metres
The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award
- ‘Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance’ by Fady Joudah
Children/Young Adult
- ‘I’ve Loved You Since Forever’ by Hoda Kotb
