On his first weekend as Iraq’s manager, Graham Arnold took in the full size and impact of his vast new constituency. The most celebrated club fixture in football, Barcelona against Real Madrid, was being beamed live into Baghdad homes and cafes.
Arnold was struck by the sheer size of the audience, crowding around big screens and small ones, men, women and children all gripped. And that for a match in which spectators across Baghdad, passionate though they may have been, held no deep emotional stake.
A week later, Arnold was in a stadium, incognito so he thought, watching a top-tier Iraqi domestic fixture from a VIP box when 25,000 began to chant his name. Expectations, he realised, had been set very high on what the new boss might achieve for the national team.
Six months on from those heady introductions, Arnold, formerly the ground-breaking coach of his native Australia, arrives in Abu Dhabi still in awe of Iraqi enthusiasm and with momentum still rolling towards the big dream, a first appearance at a World Cup finals for 40 years.
Should the so-called Lions of Mesopotamia come out of Thursday’s AFC play-off first leg against UAE with a solid result, that passion, seen, heard and resonant around next week's return leg in Basra can play a key role, he believes.
He still notes the difference between holding responsibility for the dominant sporting ambition of a country of 48 million and conditions in the land of his birth.
No coach has taken the Socceroos further in a World Cup than Arnold did in Qatar in 2022. But his sport, Down Under, cherishes those moments as special, rare national celebrations, because 'soccer' is forever in a jostle to capture the attention of a population easily distracted by, say, cricket’s Ashes, or either rugby code, or the game Australians call football while using an oval ball and their hands as much as their feet.
Arnold signed a contract with the Iraq FA that lasts only to the end of November. Should his Lions progress to the next stage of qualifying, March’s intercontinental play-off matches, that may change. But for now the focus is the winner-takes-all knockout tie against Cosmin Olaroiu’s team. “Like a battlefield,” Arnold calls it.
In this type of battle, the one-off knockout, the Aussie can be regarded as an absolute specialist. His relationship with World Cup cliffhangers goes as far back as the memories of older Iraqis do of what it is like to be in grasping distance of a finals.
Arnold the player, a centre-forward, had just begun his career as a Socceroo when Australia lost a play-off to Scotland for the last spot at the 1986 World Cup. Eight years later he was among the Australians who finished second-best to Diego Maradona’s Argentina in a play-off for USA 94.
Ahead of the 1998 World Cup, Arnold was a heartbroken Socceroo yet again, when, in a two-legged contest against Iran, his team gave away a two-goal lead with quarter of an hour remaining of the tie, Iran progressing.
By 2001, he was on Australia’s coaching staff. Same old story: Uruguay beat them in a play-off for the last ticket to the Korea-Japan World Cup.
Had this habit stuck, Arnold might have felt jinxed but, as a senior member of the Socceroos management team, he played his part in finally guiding Australia through a play-off – against Uruguay – for a berth at the 2006 World Cup, where they would reach the last 16.
Four years ago, ominously, he was manager for the Socceroos’ narrow victory over the UAE that carried them, via another play-off against Peru, to the Qatar tournament.
He left the Australia job 14 months ago. The offer from Iraq came suddenly, a vacancy arising when Jesus Casas, a Spaniard who had spent two years establishing a fine reputation and considerable popularity as national manager fell sharply from favour.
A winless run of four games, three of them defeats, ended his tenure. Safe to report Casas felt wronged. “There’s a culture of immediacy there, only the last result counts,” he said on departing with the World Cup campaign still intact, albeit with the play-off route by then likelier than automatic qualification.
“There are big challenges, many of them,” one member of the current coaching staff acknowledged to The National.
Arnold’s first game in charge would be a loss, to South Korea, but since then Iraq are unbeaten in his three fixtures and have kept clean sheets in each of those, including in both matches of phase four of the elongated Asian qualifying process, where they finished behind Saudi Arabia but above Indonesia, thanks to a feisty 1-0 win last month, the decisive moment a stunning left-footed drive from Zidane Iqbal.
Iqbal is among a number of dual nationals to have been persuaded to represent the country of their heritage. The 22-year-old was born in England and came up through the youth ranks of Manchester United, for whom he made his senior debut in the Uefa Champions League, ahead of joining Utrecht in the Netherlands.
His Iraq teammates include a scattering of players born or largely raised in northern Europe, sons of the large Iraqi diaspora, especially of the communities in Scandinavia. Several of the current squad have Sweden caps on their junior-level resumes.
But the deep well of precocious native talent is alive, too, in the party Arnold brings to the Emirates. That broad passion for the sport has produced some exceptional Iraq youth teams in the recent past, such as the Olympic semi-finalists who emerged from a country at war in 2004; and the under-20 World Cup semi-finalists of 2013.
Their successors are individuals such as Ali Jasim, whom Italy’s Como gave a Serie A debut aged 20 last season, and Mohanad Ali, ‘Mimi’, the striker whose mazy club career had taken him to the Qatar Stars League and the top divisions of Portugal and Greece by the time he turned 21.
At 25, he’s been scoring at a good rate for a struggling Dibba in the UAE and his speed on the counter-attack has been an important asset for Iraq.
They will be without Youssef Amyn, the Germany-born winger, whose club, Larnaca of Cyprus, report he still has some way to go in his recuperation from injury, and they'll miss the creativity of Ibrahim Bayesh, who also has fitness problems.
Forwards Ayman Hussein, preparing for his 90th cap, and Ali Al Hammadi, of England’s Luton Town, have returned after a period of absence.
“They can help us be more efficient in front of goal,” said Arnold, looking back over the 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia and the narrow win over Indonesia that put Iraq into the play-off. “We’ve played at a high level defensively but we need to be more effective offensively. This is a historic opportunity and we must seize it.”
Hydrogen: Market potential
Hydrogen has an estimated $11 trillion market potential, according to Bank of America Securities and is expected to generate $2.5tn in direct revenues and $11tn of indirect infrastructure by 2050 as its production increases six-fold.
"We believe we are reaching the point of harnessing the element that comprises 90 per cent of the universe, effectively and economically,” the bank said in a recent report.
Falling costs of renewable energy and electrolysers used in green hydrogen production is one of the main catalysts for the increasingly bullish sentiment over the element.
The cost of electrolysers used in green hydrogen production has halved over the last five years and will fall to 60 to 90 per cent by the end of the decade, acceding to Haim Israel, equity strategist at Merrill Lynch. A global focus on decarbonisation and sustainability is also a big driver in its development.
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
RESULT
Los Angeles Galaxy 2 Manchester United 5
Galaxy: Dos Santos (79', 88')
United: Rashford (2', 20'), Fellaini (26'), Mkhitaryan (67'), Martial (72')
Know before you go
- Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
- If you’re driving, make sure your insurance covers Oman.
- By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
- Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
- Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.
The specS: 2018 Toyota Camry
Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 298hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 356Nm @ 4,700rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
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.”
UK's plans to cut net migration
Under the UK government’s proposals, migrants will have to spend 10 years in the UK before being able to apply for citizenship.
Skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.
But what are described as "high-contributing" individuals such as doctors and nurses could be fast-tracked through the system.
Language requirements will be increased for all immigration routes to ensure a higher level of English.
Rules will also be laid out for adult dependants, meaning they will have to demonstrate a basic understanding of the language.
The plans also call for stricter tests for colleges and universities offering places to foreign students and a reduction in the time graduates can remain in the UK after their studies from two years to 18 months.
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More from Neighbourhood Watch
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
World Sevens Series standing after Dubai
1. South Africa
2. New Zealand
3. England
4. Fiji
5. Australia
6. Samoa
7. Kenya
8. Scotland
9. France
10. Spain
11. Argentina
12. Canada
13. Wales
14. Uganda
15. United States
16. Russia
So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
Rooney's club record
At Everton Appearances: 77; Goals: 17
At Manchester United Appearances: 559; Goals: 253
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Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
Biog:
Age: 34
Favourite superhero: Batman
Favourite sport: anything extreme
Favourite person: Muhammad Ali
SUZUME
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Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
Sweet%20Tooth
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What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
- Grade 9 = above an A*
- Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
- Grade 7 = grade A
- Grade 6 = just above a grade B
- Grade 5 = between grades B and C
- Grade 4 = grade C
- Grade 3 = between grades D and E
- Grade 2 = between grades E and F
- Grade 1 = between grades F and G
