Gareth Bale. Will he? Won’t he? The Real Madrid forward has long been expected to leave the Spanish giants, a view only strengthened following the “Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order” fiasco. A money-spinning transfer to China last summer never materialised, leaving Bale scrapping for game-time at the Bernabeu. A parting of the ways seems the best for all parties, but his transfer fee - £60 million-plus (Dh290m) - and, more pressingly, apparent salary demands, could scupper a move. Aged 30, and with a history of injuries, would a prospective buyer commit to that outlay? Manchester United are an obvious candidate, while former club Tottenham Hotspur could be priced out. Reuters

Gareth Bale to leave Real Madrid? Jadon Sancho to join Chelsea? Nine transfers that could happen in January



With the transfer window set to open officially on Wednesday, we look at some of the major stories to keep an eye on during what could be a frenetic month of player movement.

Chelsea, with their transfer ban lifted, are expected to be busy bolstering their squad in January, while players who have entered the final six months on their contracts could be on the move as clubs attempt to recoup last-minute transfer fees.

In the photo gallery above are nine high-profile players who could be on the move during this mid-season window. To move on to the next image, click on the arrows or thumnbnails, or if using a mobile device simply swipe.

Jigra
Director: Vasan Bala
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Rated: 3.5/5
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions

There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.

1 Going Dark

A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.

2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers

A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.

3. Fake Destinations

Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.

4. Rebranded Barrels

Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.

* Bloomberg

Cricket World Cup League 2

UAE squad

Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind

Fixtures

Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE


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