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No decision on Qatar World Cup before next year

October 5, 2013

Qatar_world_cupDoha, Oct 5: Fifa has launched a consultation process to decide whether to stage the 2022 World Cup in Qatar outside the traditional June-July slot and will not make a decision until next year, president Sepp Blatter said on Friday.

“The executive committee decided to launch a consultation process among main stakeholders for Qatar 2022 dates,” Blatter said on Twitter. “No decision will be taken before 2014 WC (World Cup)”.

Qatar was awarded the right to host the competition in December 2010 in a decision based on its plans to stage the event in June-July using air-conditioned stadiums to combat the fierce heat.

Despite Qatar’s assurances that the plan is viable, there has been widespread concern over the health of the players and visiting fans in the searing conditions of the desert summer.

Blatter said in July that he would propose a move to a cooler time of year and that he expected the executive committee to agree with him.

European soccer’s governing body UEFA agreed last month that the World Cup should be moved, with all 54 member associations backing the proposal.

However, there have been demands for greater consultation from other stakeholders, led by the powerful European Clubs Association (ECA) which has more than 200 members including the world’s richest and most powerful clubs.

ECA president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said in September that, with the competition still nine years away, there was no need to rush into a decision.

Clubs are worried about the financial impact of hosting the World Cup outside its traditional June-July slot, as it would force them to reschedule domestic leagues.

Rummenigge has suggested that April 2022 would be an alternative while January-February and November-December are also possibilities, although the first two months of the year will also see the Winter Olympics taking place.

Blatter said Fifa could not in get involved in labour issues in any country, speaking about claims about alleged abuses against workers involved in construction projects linked to the World Cup.

But he added that at the same time Fifa could not ignore the allegations first made in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, which claimed that dozens of expatriate Nepalese workers had died and thousands of others worked in conditions akin to “modern-day slavery” in the Gulf state.

“I express all my sympathy and regret for anything that happens in any country where there are deaths on construction sites, especially when they are related to a World Cup,” he told a news conference.

“We should also say that workers’ rights are the responsibility for Qatar and the (construction) companies, there are many European companies working there and these are also responsible for the conditions of workers; it’s not Fifa’s responsibility but we can’t turn a blind eye,” Blatter said.

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Agencies
June 29,2020

Protests condemning the Israeli plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank are set to take place in the United States and Europe on the same day prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to begin the process.

The demonstrations will be held on Wednesday in Chicago, San Diego, Brooklyn, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Other Western cities will also witness similar protests, including Toronto, Madrid and Valencia.

Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and American Muslims for Palestine are among the pro-Palestinian groups organizing the protests.

The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, one of the organizers, urged "direct actions and popular mobilizations in [Palestinian] refugee camps, cities and villages," and professed "loyalty to the martyrs" on its call for the events.

Another group, Al-Awda or the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition, decried "72 years of genocide, ethnic cleansing and dispossession" of Palestinians.

It also tied their demonstrations to the protests against anti-black racism in the US and beyond.

"We demand the defunding and dismantling of US police alongside the defunding and dismantling of Zionist colonialism and racist Israeli apartheid," Al-Awda said on its website.

Netanyahu has set July 1 as the date for the start of cabinet discussions on the annexation plan.

He has been driven ahead by US President Donald Trump, who unveiled a “peace” plan for the Middle East in January that effectively sidelines the Palestinians altogether.

The plan, which Trump himself has described as the “deal of the century,” envisions Jerusalem al-Quds as “Israel’s undivided capital” and allows the Tel Aviv regime to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley. The plan also denies Palestinian refugees the right of return to their homeland, among other controversial terms.

The Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

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Agencies
May 31,2020

Riyadh, May 31: Over 90,000 mosques in Saudi Arabia reopened their doors to worshippers on Sunday morning after over a two-month closure as part of an ease in the curfew restrictions to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The worshipers were allowed to enter the mosques, except the mosques in Makkah, from Fajr prayers today morning (Shawwal 8) with a limit of 40 per cent capacity.

The reopening of mosques was be undertaken in accordance with the guidance of Minister of Islamic Affairs, Dr Abdullatif Al Asheikh, and in line with advice issued by the Senior Council of Ulemas.

The ministry has embarked on a vigorous media campaign to urge all worshippers to abide by preventive measures for their own safety to curb the spread of Covid-19.Among the instructions are doing ablution at home, hand-washing and using sanitisers before going out to the mosque and after coming back home.

On Saturday, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman has approved opening the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah in stages to the public.

The elderly and those with chronic diseases are advised to perform their prayers at home. Reading and reciting the Holy Quran online is advised, too, from one's own mobile phone or at least reading from a privately owned copy of the Holy Quran.

Bringing one's prayer mat to perform prayers in mosques is highly recommended as well as keeping a two-metre distance between one another prayer.

Accompanying children under the age of 15 to the mosques is prohibited. Putting on a face mask and avoiding shaking hands and other contact is also recommended.

Meanwhile, the ministry managed, during the closure of mosques, to undertaking a massive cleaning, sanitising and maintenance drive in all mosques Kingdom-wide, according to world-class standards and best known practices. This included sanitising over 10 million mosques, 43 million copies of several sizes and volumes of the Quran, more than 600,000 Holy Quran cupboards, in addition to repairing and maintaining about 176,000

water closets, annexed to mosques.

 

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Dubai, Jul 28: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) (ADCB.AD) is letting go hundreds of employees, sources said, the latest in a round of lay-offs by regional banks as pressure mounts to cut costs amid lower oil prices and the coronavirus crisis.

The UAE’s third-biggest lender is laying off 400 employees, two sources familiar with the matter said, after it had committed to not cutting staff because of the crisis.

In a statement, a spokesman said ADCB had pursued efficiency over the last decade by managing out its lowest underachievers after regular reviews, while ensuring talent was deployed in high-growth areas, such as digital banking.

“A certain number of redundancies are therefore expected every year in the normal course of business,” the bank spokesman added.

The sources said the cuts would involve ADCB’s consumer business and several in top management were among those being let go. One source said the bank was looking to close 20 branches.

In March, ADCB had declared, “No employee will be made redundant during 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

UAE banks have been hit by government measures to rein in the spread of the virus, forcing many businesses to shut temporarily.

Last week, Dubai’s largest bank, Emirates NBD, reported a slump of 58% in profits. In June, sources told Reuters the bank started a new round of hundreds of lay-offs.

In May, ADCB reported a fall of 84% in first-quarter net profit as it took impairments of $292 million on debt exposure to troubled hospital operator NMC Health and payments group Finablr.

It was a major lender, with an exposure of about $981 million, to NMC Health, which went into administration this year after months of turmoil following questions over financial reporting.

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