Upon second thought on the NFL Wembley game...



The NFL believed it was exporting an attractive game to England for its annual clash on the turf of Wembley Stadium.

The San Francisco 49ers were favoured to win the NFC West. Their coach, the former head-hunting linebacker Mike Singletary, is a volatile character, flashing stares that might turn the frozen expressions of the guards at Buckingham Palace into wide-eyed alarm.

The Denver Broncos, with up-and-coming coach Josh McDaniels, were expected to contend in the AFC West behind dynamic quarterback Kyle Orton.

And even if he did nothing but hold a clipboard and look virtuous and well-muscled, the Broncos also would be sending to London Tim Tebow, the wildly popular rookie and the back-up to Orton's back-up, but a college football hero of such notoriety that his Broncos jersey was among the league's hottest sellers even before he played his first game.

Yes, NFL schedule-makers reckoned, 49ers and Broncos, an attracting pairing indeed.

Oops.

The 49ers are 1-5, having just lost to previously winless Carolina. The Broncos are 2-5. By kick-off, some British tabloid is sure to report that the Broncos did not fly to London until Thursday because they needed time to help players recover from the shock of a 59-14 beatdown by Oakland.

The Britons might still get a jolly good show in the fourth NFL fixture at Wembley. (Mexico City was the setting for a 1996 game, and the Buffalo Bills play once per annum in nearby Toronto.)

Both teams might enjoy their getaways from antsy home bases. In Denver, ire is being directed at McDaniels, who shrugged it off and said, "That's the occupation that I chose. It's part of the deal."

The 49ers fortuitously scheduled their trans-Atlantic flight directly from last Sunday's debacle in North Carolina, avoiding a descent into censure back on the west coast. But perhaps nobody back home would have bothered them, what with the baseball Giants monopolising attention in the World Series.

Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, is so eager to ply the Britons with American football that he considered scheduling two games in the UK this season and spoke in recent days of placing a franchise there permanently.

The entire endeavour is all about marketing. Spreading the fan base. The league will never go all NBA, extending its tentacles to the corners of the globe. If nothing else, the word futbol is already taken.

As long as this game continues to draw around 80,000 fans - some of whom even "tailgate" in the car park before the game - it may not matter if they know the difference between good teams or bad.

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
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League final:

Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Airev
Started: September 2023
Founder: Muhammad Khalid
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Generative AI
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
 
Company%20Profile
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The specs

Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now

The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Power: 268bhp / 536bhp
Torque: 343Nm / 686Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
On sale: Later this year
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Salah in numbers

€39 million: Liverpool agreed a fee, including add-ons, in the region of 39m (nearly Dh176m) to sign Salah from Roma last year. The exchange rate at the time meant that cost the Reds £34.3m - a bargain given his performances since.

13: The 25-year-old player was not a complete stranger to the Premier League when he arrived at Liverpool this summer. However, during his previous stint at Chelsea, he made just 13 Premier League appearances, seven of which were off the bench, and scored only twice.

57: It was in the 57th minute of his Liverpool bow when Salah opened his account for the Reds in the 3-3 draw with Watford back in August. The Egyptian prodded the ball over the line from close range after latching onto Roberto Firmino's attempted lob.

7: Salah's best scoring streak of the season occurred between an FA Cup tie against West Brom on January 27 and a Premier League win over Newcastle on March 3. He scored for seven games running in all competitions and struck twice against Tottenham.

3: This season Salah became the first player in Premier League history to win the player of the month award three times during a term. He was voted as the division's best player in November, February and March.

40: Salah joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush as the only players in Liverpool's history to have scored 40 times in a single season when he headed home against Bournemouth at Anfield earlier this month.

30: The goal against Bournemouth ensured the Egyptian achieved another milestone in becoming the first African player to score 30 times across one Premier League campaign.

8: As well as his fine form in England, Salah has also scored eight times in the tournament phase of this season's Champions League. Only Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 15 to his credit, has found the net more often in the group stages and knockout rounds of Europe's premier club competition.

THE SIXTH SENSE

Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Rating: 5/5


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