The Confederation of African Football (CAF) unveiled the new trophy for their leading club competition on Thursday, silverware sculpted to symbolise a new era for a prize that has been handed to the champions of the continent for 60 years.
Recent recipients of the old cup have tended to be the familiar grandees, but for the first time since 2016, there’s a strong chance a new name is about to appear on the roll of honour.
At the Johannesburg ceremony where the trophy was presented were representatives of Pyramids, the upstart Egyptians who on Saturday contest the first leg of the CAF Champions League final against Mamelodi Sundowns in Pretoria. It is Pyramids’ first such final. They intend to take first ownership of the gleaming new cup.
In a packed end-of-season agenda for Pyramids, they will in between the away leg and the Cairo return on June 1 play their last match of a domestic campaign in which they have also set a championship pace.
That race, though, faltered enough that they would need to both beat Ceramica and hope Al Ahly falter against Pharco to seize that crown ahead of Al Ahly.
But the fact that the Pyramids challenge has been sustained this far, and that it is they and not Al Ahly – 12-time African champions – nor Zamalek the five-time winners – who are upholding their country’s great tradition in CAF’s biggest annual showpiece is a startling novelty for the region.
Pyramids are barely seven years old as a sporting institution, and in common with several of elite football’s most upwardly mobile clubs – from Abu Dhabi-backed Manchester City to Qatar-funded Paris Saint-Germain – the impulse for their sudden rise has been substantial financial backing from the Gulf.
Pyramids’ ascent began when Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and very visible driver of boxing’s boom in the kingdom, took over Al Assiouty, from Beni Suef, rebranded them and moved the new entity to Cairo.
But the momentum to make them genuine challengers to the established giants of Egypt has been overseen by the Emirati businessman Salem Al Shamsi, who took over control in 2019.
Recruitment has been ambitious and mostly shrewd. And, in being a young club, there is still plenty of room for the fan base to grow - those who have watched Pyramids over the last seven months have been richly entertained.
They were the leading goalscorers in the regular Egyptian Premier League season – its championship play-off phase is now nearing completion, with Al Ahly two points ahead of Pyramids at the top – and have comfortably outscored everybody else in the CAF Champions League.
There have been memorable cliffhangers: a rollercoaster 4-3 win over AS FAR in the quarter-finals, in which, because of the away goals rule, Pyramids had their nerves shredded when the Moroccan club reduced the 4-1 deficit they had taken home from the first leg. One more goal would have put FAR through.
The semi-final against Orlando Pirates of South Africa would be a slow-burner that turned into an epic. After a goalless draw in Soweto, Pirates twice took the lead in Cairo, both times after poor clearances from the Pyramids defence.
The Egyptians equalised twice, ahead of the indomitable Fiston Mayele snaffling a winner for 3-2, erasing Pirates’ away goals advantage with six minutes left on the clock.
“My most important goal,” said the striker. And also his fourth in as many CAF matches and his eighth in 11 of a pan-continental odyssey that began with Pyramids’ first-round thrashing of JKU of Zanzibar, Mayele the first name on a 9-0 aggregate scoreline.
The run stumbled momentarily when Pyramids fell behind in both legs against Rwanda’s APR but they emerged 4-2 victors.
Since then, their effectiveness in their Cairo fortress has been key. “We have a record of not losing at home and that’s a strength we know how to leverage,” said Pyramids manager Krunoslav Jurcic.
Jurcic is an old hand in Mena football, previously in charge of UAE clubs Baniyas and Al Nasr and with spells in Turkey and Saudi Arabia on his resume.
But his impact in Egypt has been as great as anywhere he has worked since he guided Dinamo Zagreb to three league titles in his native Croatia. Last year, Pyramids lifted their first major title, the Egyptian Cup, a threshold moment.
Since the 2018 takeover, they had ruffled feathers, notably at Zamalek and Al Ahly, the behemoths on Egypt’s sporting landscape, but had only a series of silver medals to show for it – three times runners-up in the Premier League, three times in domestic knockout tournaments and, five years ago, losing finalists in the CAF Confederation Cup.
The team Jurcic takes to Pretoria has the worldliness to claim gold. Goalkeeper Ahmed El Shenawy, 34, has been playing CAF Champions League football for well over a decade and was in goal for the first leg of Zamalek’s defeat to Sundowns nine years back, the final where the South Africans claimed their one and so far only Champions League title.
Mayele is 30 and at the peak of his powers as a centre-forward with a powerful physical presence and nimble movements on and off the ball.
He too has unfinished business with Sundowns, or at least the large core of Sundowns players who make up much of the South African national side. Mayele was part of the DR Congo team who were last year edged into fourth place by South Africa at the Africa Cup of Nations.
He has thrived at Pyramids partly because of the quality of the passes played into him, be they crosses from the zippy attacking full-backs, Moroccan Mohamed Chibi and Egypt international left-back Mohamed Hamdi. The pace of Mostafa Fathi behind opposition defences and the deft touches of Ibrahim Adel open up helpful space too.
“We have a good balance in the attacking and defensive parts of our game,” said Jurcic ahead of the squad’s departure for Johannesburg, and at their stab at writing a new chapter for African football. “We want to put our names in history,” added Mayele.
It
Director: Andres Muschietti
Starring: Bill Skarsgard, Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor
Three stars
Crazy Rich Asians
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeon, Gemma Chan
Four stars
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.”
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FINAL RECKONING
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg
Rating: 4/5
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dual%20synchronous%20electric%20motors%20%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E646hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E830Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ETwo-speed%20auto%20(rear%20axle)%3B%20single-speed%20auto%20(front)%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh552%2C311%3B%20Dh660%2C408%20(as%20tested)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Squad
Ali Kasheif, Salim Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdulrahman, Mohammed Al Attas, Abdullah Ramadan, Zayed Al Ameri (Al Jazira), Mohammed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammed Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Essa, Mohammed Shaker, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah) Walid Abbas, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli), Tariq Ahmed, Jasim Yaqoub (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Muharami (Baniyas)
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi
Director: Kangana Ranaut, Krish Jagarlamudi
Producer: Zee Studios, Kamal Jain
Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Ankita Lokhande, Danny Denzongpa, Atul Kulkarni
Rating: 2.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
if you go
The flights
Etihad, Emirates and Singapore Airlines fly direct from the UAE to Singapore from Dh2,265 return including taxes. The flight takes about 7 hours.
The hotel
Rooms at the M Social Singapore cost from SG $179 (Dh488) per night including taxes.
The tour
Makan Makan Walking group tours costs from SG $90 (Dh245) per person for about three hours. Tailor-made tours can be arranged. For details go to www.woknstroll.com.sg
