The hospitals of Baghdad, especially those around the Shia-dominated Sadr City, received a continuous stream of patients with bullet wounds on Friday and not one of those shots was fired in anger or hatred.
According to reports, more than 1,000 people were wounded by the celebratory gunfire that followed Iraq’s unexpected victory over neighbours and arch-rivals Iran in the quarter-finals of the AFC Asian Cup in Australia.
The Sunni heartlands of Iraq surely would have witnessed a similar eruption of joy but, unfortunately for the football fans of those regions, militant group ISIL, who seized control of those lands last summer, have deemed football an “evil sport devised by the West to mislead the Muslim youth”.
Thirteen teenagers from the Al Yarmouk district of Mosul, who defied that ruling and dared to watch the live telecast of Iraq’s opening Asian Cup match, against Jordan, on January 12, were rounded up from their homes and executed publicly by a firing squad, according to an anti-ISIL activist group.
“The sport is clinically dead in the Sunni areas,” said Maher Hameed, a Jordan-based Iraqi journalist. “If you support the Iraqi team, you could face punishment from ISIL. It has become a sectarian issue – if you support the Iraqi team, you are accused of being a supporter of the Iraqi government and a team of Shias.”
ISIL’s view was not shared by those 13 murdered teenagers. For them, like the vast majority of Iraqis, football is a unifying force.
In a fractured nation, ravaged by war, insurgency, corruption, political instability and sectarianism, the “beautiful game” has always brought together the Sunnis and the Shias, the Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and never more than in 2007, when Iraq were the shock Asian Cup champions.
“Reminder: @IraqFA is not an Arab team,” Yousif Saeed, a player coordinator with the Iraqi Football Association, tweeted yesterday. “It’s Arab, Assyrian, Kurdish and Turkmen.
“Many players in the team don’t even speak Arabic. Osama Rashid, Ahmed Yasin, Salam Shaker – they are all not Arabs.”
Add to that list the United States-based Justin Meram. He is a Chaldean Catholic, born in Michigan, but playing for his parents’ nation.
Yasin, who scored Iraq’s equaliser in the second half against Iran, is a Kurd who has been living in Sweden since the age of three. The president of the Iraq Football Association, Abdul Khaliq Masood, also is a Kurd.
Dhurgham Ismail, who put Iraq in the lead from the penalty spot in the 116th minute, is a Shia from Maysan, while the captain, Younis Mahmoud, who struck the winner in the final of the 2007 Asian Cup, is a Sunni Turkman.
Mahmoud could be a microcosm of Iraq football. He has been without a club since leaving Al Ahli of Saudi Arabia before the end of last season and many critics had questioned coach Radhi Shenaishil’s decision to take the veteran to Australia, given his lack of activity. He had missed the Gulf Cup of Nations, two months ago, with an injury.
But put him on the international stage and he, invariably, delivers. As if to mock his critics, he played the full 120 minutes of the quarter-final against Iran and then made light of the pressure in the penalties by chipping a “panenka” past the Iran goalkeeper.
“I did it because I wanted to send a message to my players not to worry, look how easy it is to score,” Mahmoud said of the audacious penalty.
Not many of his teammates would have been worried, though, and not because they are the “Lions of Mesopotamia”. Growing up on the streets of their battered nation, they have been through worse and survived.
Bombings and attacks on stadiums and footballers have been a common occurrence over the past decade, but the local leagues have continued undeterred despite the challenges.
Many of the clubs struggle financially. Travelling for away matches is always fraught with risks, even though 11 of the 20 clubs in the top division this season are Baghdad-based.
“The league has gone on smoothly,” Hameed said. “There is good coordination between the Iraqi football association and the Ministry of Interior, who provide sufficient security at the stadiums.”
The bulk of Iraq’s team at the Asian Cup – 15 of the 23 players – play in the domestic league and, knowing the state of their nation, they are determined to bring some joy to the country.
“Since the invasion of Iraq, we have seen many sides trying to feed sectarian strife and divisions in our country,” Hameed said. “But adversity brings out the best in us and every victory always makes us forget the differences.”
arizvi@thenational.ae
Follow our sports coverage on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
HWJN
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Yasir%20Alyasiri%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Baraa%20Alem%2C%20Nour%20Alkhadra%2C%20Alanoud%20Saud%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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.”
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years-of-age
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his/her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30-years-old and able to support the child financially
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
UAE cricketers abroad
Sid Jhurani is not the first cricketer from the UAE to go to the UK to try his luck.
Rameez Shahzad Played alongside Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett in Durham while he was studying there. He also played club cricket as an overseas professional, but his time in the UK stunted his UAE career. The batsman went a decade without playing for the national team.
Yodhin Punja The seam bowler was named in the UAE’s extended World Cup squad in 2015 despite being just 15 at the time. He made his senior UAE debut aged 16, and subsequently took up a scholarship at Claremont High School in the south of England.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Dirham Stretcher tips for having a baby in the UAE
Selma Abdelhamid, the group's moderator, offers her guide to guide the cost of having a young family:
• Buy second hand stuff
They grow so fast. Don't get a second hand car seat though, unless you 100 per cent know it's not expired and hasn't been in an accident.
• Get a health card and vaccinate your child for free at government health centres
Ms Ma says she discovered this after spending thousands on vaccinations at private clinics.
• Join mum and baby coffee mornings provided by clinics, babysitting companies or nurseries.
Before joining baby classes ask for a free trial session. This way you will know if it's for you or not. You'll be surprised how great some classes are and how bad others are.
• Once baby is ready for solids, cook at home
Take the food with you in reusable pouches or jars. You'll save a fortune and you'll know exactly what you're feeding your child.
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
MATCH INFO
FA Cup final
Chelsea 1
Hazard (22' pen)
Manchester United 0
Man of the match: Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
SPAIN SQUAD
Goalkeepers Simon (Athletic Bilbao), De Gea (Manchester United), Sanchez (Brighton)
Defenders Gaya (Valencia), Alba (Barcelona), P Torres (Villarreal), Laporte (Manchester City), Garcia (Manchester City), D Llorente (Leeds), Azpilicueta (Chelsea)
Midfielders Busquets (Barcelona), Rodri (Manchester City), Pedri (Barcelona), Thiago (Liverpool), Koke (Atletico Madrid), Ruiz (Napoli), M Llorente (Atletico Madrid)
Forwards: Olmo (RB Leipzig), Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad), Morata (Juventus), Moreno (Villarreal), F Torres (Manchester City), Traore (Wolves), Sarabia (PSG)
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
