As Serie A enters its winter break, Ian Hawkey looks at how the Italian league season is shaping up so far.
From the warmth of Doha as they awaited Friday night’s Qatar-hosted Italian Super Cup final, Serie A champions Juventus surveyed with mild satisfaction a cracker of a contest back home that closed the Serie A year.
Fiorentina versus Napoli, on Thursday, had six goals, terrific see-saw drama right to the very close, and by the end, two of the top division’s most entertaining sides had one point apiece.
Gripping though it may have been, third-placed Napoli missed out on two points in their pursuit of Juventus at the top.
Roma meanwhile stand four points off the leaders in second place, still ruing last weekend’s narrow defeat to Juve that ensured the champions would sit happy at the top going into 2017.
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Chasing Juve’s serial winners can be a dispiriting business, and the indications already are that Juventus, with a game in hand over Roma and Napoli, are minded to give fewer teasing glimpses of their vulnerability to all the rest than they did when they made their very patchy start to the defence of their 2015 title.
Sure, Massimiliano Allegri’s team have suffered three defeats in their 17 matches so far this season. Sure, Napoli and Roma are outscoring them, but there is steel in those black and white stripes that is hard to bend.
Juve are accustomed to looking over their shoulders at either Roma or Napoli, and knowing they can cope with either.
Meanwhile, a future time where Inter Milan or AC Milan recover lost ground in terms of prestige, and become the most muscular challengers still appears a while away. Inter have had a turbulent year, and are on their third manager of 2016, Stefano Piolo.
They lost Roberto Mancini in the summer and then dismissed Frank de Boer, the Dutchman lasting just 11 Serie A games.
Inter, without a league title since their 2010 treble, have not, it can be safely reported, yet provided quite the yield their various foreign owners anticipated since the club turned to courting significant investors four years back.
AC Milan are looking that way now. They took their biggest stride away from the governance of president Silvio Berlusconi, although their proposed takeover by a Chinese consortium will not be completed before March.
By then, Milan’s prospects of displacing Roma and Napoli from the top three, the Uefa Champions League-eligible positions should be clearer.
Under Vicenzo Montella, Milan have looked bright, and, in a break from some of their recruitment habits of recent years, rather youthful and with a broader spread of Italian talent.
Some of the younger club members of Serie A have less to feel positive about.
Take Sassuolo, who followed up their historic place in European competition with a falling away, both in the Europa League and domestically, as if the air has been let out of their gravity-defying balloon.
As for the champions, they said goodbye to Paul Pogba in the summer, but, right now, would back the quality of the buy made with a large chunk of the proceeds of that sale, Gonzalo Higuain.
He is helping Juventus maintain their high standards, domestically at least.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
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Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
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Profile of Whizkey
Date founded: 04 November 2017
Founders: Abdulaziz AlBlooshi and Harsh Hirani
Based: Dubai, UAE
Number of employees: 10
Sector: AI, software
Cashflow: Dh2.5 Million
Funding stage: Series A
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The Facility’s Versatility
Between the start of the 2020 IPL on September 20, and the end of the Pakistan Super League this coming Thursday, the Zayed Cricket Stadium has had an unprecedented amount of traffic.
Never before has a ground in this country – or perhaps anywhere in the world – had such a volume of major-match cricket.
And yet scoring has remained high, and Abu Dhabi has seen some classic encounters in every format of the game.
October 18, IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders tied with Sunrisers Hyderabad
The two playoff-chasing sides put on 163 apiece, before Kolkata went on to win the Super Over
January 8, ODI, UAE beat Ireland by six wickets
A century by CP Rizwan underpinned one of UAE’s greatest ever wins, as they chased 270 to win with an over to spare
February 6, T10, Northern Warriors beat Delhi Bulls by eight wickets
The final of the T10 was chiefly memorable for a ferocious over of fast bowling from Fidel Edwards to Nicholas Pooran
March 14, Test, Afghanistan beat Zimbabwe by six wickets
Eleven wickets for Rashid Khan, 1,305 runs scored in five days, and a last session finish
June 17, PSL, Islamabad United beat Peshawar Zalmi by 15 runs
Usman Khawaja scored a hundred as Islamabad posted the highest score ever by a Pakistan team in T20 cricket
England World Cup squad
Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wkt), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
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SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)
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The currency conundrum
Russ Mould, investment director at online trading platform AJ Bell, says almost every major currency has challenges right now. “The US has a huge budget deficit, the euro faces political friction and poor growth, sterling is bogged down by Brexit, China’s renminbi is hit by debt fears while slowing Chinese growth is hurting commodity exporters like Australia and Canada.”
Most countries now actively want a weak currency to make their exports more competitive. “China seems happy to let the renminbi drift lower, the Swiss are still running quantitative easing at full tilt and central bankers everywhere are actively talking down their currencies or offering only limited support," says Mr Mould.
This is a race to the bottom, and everybody wants to be a winner.
The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
Background: Chemical Weapons
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Where to submit a sample
Volunteers of all ages can submit DNA samples at centres across Abu Dhabi, including: Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec), Biogenix Labs in Masdar City, NMC Royal Hospital in Khalifa City, NMC Royal Medical Centre, Abu Dhabi, NMC Royal Women's Hospital, Bareen International Hospital, Al Towayya in Al Ain, NMC Specialty Hospital, Al Ain
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