As Al Ahly’s players head to Al Nahyan Stadium on Saturday, they could be forgiven for feeling a glass ceiling pressing down on them.
At stake is a bronze medal, in what is, at least by Fifa’s definition, the most illustrious global club competition in football. Third place is more than respectable, but it can feel deflating if it becomes too much of a habit.
Since the Club World Cup was formulated as an all-continents event at the turn of the millennium, Al Ahly, Africa’s most successful club, have been its most regular guests. There have been two bronze medals, including last year’s; a fourth-placed finish; a pair of lost fifth-place play-offs.
For a player like Ramy Rabia, long servant of the club, the frustrating proximity to a final is already a decade-long déjà vu. He helped marshall the accomplished victory over Monterrey last weekend to guide his team into the last four. But, once there, the long list of injured or fatigued absentees told in the semi-final defeat to Palmeiras.
Rabia could tell a similar story from as far back as 2012, where a semi-final defeat to a Brazilian club — Corinthians — prevented Al Ahly reaching a final against Chelsea.
Several of Rabia’s teammates have their own tales of near-miss frustration. The last nine weeks have been a concentrated saga of them for Ayman Ashraf, Amr El Solia, Hamdy Fathy, Mohamed Abdelmonem and Mohamed Sherif. For those current Egypt internationals, Saturday’s bronze-medal match against Al Hilal must feel like one cliffhanger too many.
That group have been involved in no fewer than eight knockout matches for club or country in major tournaments in the space of two months. It would have been nine had Al Ahly not been obliged to play their Club World Cup quarter-final against Monterrey the day before their Egypt internationals were in action, 5,000km away, in last Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations final.
First, there was December’s Arab Cup in Qatar, to which Egypt sent a strong squad. Their quarter-final against Jordan went to a full 120 minutes; the semi against Tunisia was goalless until El Solia unfortunately deflected into his own net five minutes into stoppage time. The third-place play-off turned into a marathon, too, Egypt losing on penalties to the hosts, Sherif failing to convert the last Egyptian spot-kick and leaving the Pharaohs just shy of a bronze medal.
What happened in Cameroon is still too fresh and painful in the Egyptian memory to bear detailed repeating, except that the habit of narrow margins was impeccably maintained: four doses of extra-time in the knockout rounds and final; three penalty shoot-outs, taking the Al Ahly players through various contortions of tension, fatigue and, in two cases, serious injury.
Goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy pulled out with a hamstring problem in extra-time of Egypt’s last-16 match; Akram Tawfik had ruptured a cruciate ligament early in the opening group game, removing both from the climax of Afcon and the later stages of the Club World Cup.
As for the quintet who wheezed all the way through Afcon, they will be forgiven for dreading the possibility of yet another tiebreaker on Saturday. Penalties got Egypt through two stages of the Afcon, but were then cruel to them in the final, Abdelmonem one of those who failed to convert in the shoot-out against Senegal, leaving Egypt with a second silver medal from their last three Africa Cup of Nations.
All of which threatens to cast this cohort of Al Ahly and Egypt footballers as a ‘nearly’ generation, even if they are entitled to regard themselves as masters of club football on their own continent. Next week, Al Ahly resume their pursuit of a third successive African Champions League title.
Their manager, Pitso Mosimane, is justified in complaining about scheduling. This month’s squeeze on the calendar denied him seven Egypt internationals for the outset of the Club World Cup, meant he lost two important men because of injuries sustained at Afcon and welcomed back his other five Pharaohs in a state of gloomy exhaustion only the night before the semi-final against Palmeiras.
The good news? Afcon is due to go back to its summer slot from 2023 and so will not clash with the club diary in the same way again. Also on the horizon for Al Ahly’s consolidating their superclub status is the projected African Super League, possibly to be launched next year, with its promise of new income streams and heightened competition.
For Egyptian football, there is, in the foreground, yet another cliffhanger — the two-legged, revenge-tinted World Cup qualifier against Senegal, with the Cairo meeting only 40 days away. That’s just enough time for the Al Ahly band of Pharaohs to catch breath, perhaps heal injuries and figure out how to claim a place at the next World Cup without recourse to another penalty shoot-out.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Abu Dhabi Card
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 80,000 1,400m
National selection: AF Mohanak
5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 90,000 1,400m
National selection: Jayide Al Boraq
6pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 100,000 1,400m
National selection: Rocket Power
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Championship Listed (PA) Dh 180,000 1,600m
National selection: Ihtesham
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 1,600m
National selection: Noof KB
7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 80,000 2.200m
National selection: EL Faust
What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
MATCH INFO
Day 2 at the Gabba
Australia 312-1
Warner 151 not out, Burns 97, Labuschagne 55 not out
Pakistan 240
Shafiq 76, Starc 4-52
England's Ashes squad
Joe Root (captain), Moeen Ali, Jimmy Anderson, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
New schools in Dubai
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
'Nope'
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Dunki
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The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Feeding the thousands for iftar
Six industrial scale vats of 500litres each are used to cook the kanji or broth
Each vat contains kanji or porridge to feed 1,000 people
The rice porridge is poured into a 500ml plastic box
350 plastic tubs are placed in one container trolley
Each aluminium container trolley weighing 300kg is unloaded by a small crane fitted on a truck
WORLD CUP SEMI-FINALS
England v New Zealand (Saturday, 12pm)
Wales v South Africa (Sunday, 1pm)
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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The Birkin bag is made by Hermès.
It is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin
Noone from Hermès will go on record to say how much a new Birkin costs, how long one would have to wait to get one, and how many bags are actually made each year.
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Defined benefit and defined contribution schemes explained
Defined Benefit Plan (DB)
A defined benefit plan is where the benefit is defined by a formula, typically length of service to and salary at date of leaving.
Defined Contribution Plan (DC)
A defined contribution plan is where the benefit depends on the amount of money put into the plan for an employee, and how much investment return is earned on those contributions.
Volunteers offer workers a lifeline
Community volunteers have swung into action delivering food packages and toiletries to the men.
When provisions are distributed, the men line up in long queues for packets of rice, flour, sugar, salt, pulses, milk, biscuits, shaving kits, soap and telecom cards.
Volunteers from St Mary’s Catholic Church said some workers came to the church to pray for their families and ask for assistance.
Boxes packed with essential food items were distributed to workers in the Dubai Investments Park and Ras Al Khaimah camps last week. Workers at the Sonapur camp asked for Dh1,600 towards their gas bill.
“Especially in this year of tolerance we consider ourselves privileged to be able to lend a helping hand to our needy brothers in the Actco camp," Father Lennie Connully, parish priest of St Mary’s.
Workers spoke of their helplessness, seeing children’s marriages cancelled because of lack of money going home. Others told of their misery of being unable to return home when a parent died.
“More than daily food, they are worried about not sending money home for their family,” said Kusum Dutta, a volunteer who works with the Indian consulate.
The specs: 2019 Mini Cooper
Price, base: Dh141,740 (three-door) / Dh165,900 (five-door)
Engine: 1.5-litre four-cylinder (Cooper) / 2.0-litre four-cylinder (Cooper S)
Power: 136hp @ 4,500rpm (Cooper) / 192hp @ 5,000rpm (Cooper S)
Torque: 220Nm @ 1,480rpm (Cooper) / 280Nm @ 1,350rpm (Cooper S)
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 4.8L to 5.4L / 100km
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Europe wide
Some of French groups are threatening Friday to continue their journey to Brussels, the capital of Belgium and the European Union, and to meet up with drivers from other countries on Monday.
Belgian authorities joined French police in banning the threatened blockade. A similar lorry cavalcade was planned for Friday in Vienna but cancelled after authorities prohibited it.
