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Al-Hilal reclaim Saudi league title with thumping 4-1 win on final day of the season

Updated 13 April 2018
HASSANIN MUBARAK
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Al-Hilal reclaim Saudi league title with thumping 4-1 win on final day of the season

Updated 13 April 2018
HASSANIN MUBARAK

Riyadh: Al-Hilal produced an exceptional and competent performance on the last day of the Saudi Pro League season to wrap up a record 15th league title for Al-Za’eem after comfortably dispatching Al-Fateh 4-1 in front of more than 24,000 spectators at the King Saud University stadium in Riyadh.

After 26 rounds of the Saudi Pro League, 180 matches played over 244 days, it had come down to just 90 minutes of football to see whether the 2018 Saudi League crown would go to the league leaders and reigning champions from Riyadh or Al-Ahli of Jeddah, who lay just a point behind in second.

Al-Hilal’s interim coach Juani Brown had only taken charge just 50 days prior after the sacking of Argentine compatriot Ramón Díaz after a 1-0 defeat to Iranian club Esteghlal Tehran in the AFC Champions League. Diaz had won the Saudi King’s Cup and Saudi Professional League last season and reached the final of 2017 AFC Champions League however the club board of directors had decided to sack the Argentine following a string of unsatisfactory team performances.

The 40 year-old Brown had been supervising the club’s Under 21s before he was named coach of the senior side and had kept the club on course for the title, with the team picking up seven points from a possible 12 under the young coach.

On the last day of the season, Al-Hilal who had led at the top of the Saudi Pro League table from September 30, took on fourth-placed Al-Fateh in Riyadh while Al-Ahli, who were looking to take advantage of any slip-up from the defending champions, played bottom placed club Ohod.

Al-Ahli needed to win and hope Al-Fateh could manage at least a draw against the league leaders, a result which would allow the “Green Fortress” to move above Al-Hilal. They had been Al-Hilal’s closest challengers to the Saudi league crown and since the turn of the year had gone on an unbeaten run and picked up 21 points from a possible 27 narrowing Al-Hilal’s lead at the top of the table to just a single point.

For their must-win game against bottom of the table Ohod, a team with the worst goal difference in the Saudi league, Al-Ahli’s Ukrainian coach Sergei Rebrov dropped his top scorer Omar Al-Somah after their much publicized fall out after the 0-0 draw with Al-Hilal along with midfielder Abdul-Fattah Asiri and instead decided to start Greek midfielder Giannis Fetfatzidis and striker Mohanad Asiri, who had 8 goals in 14 league starts.

But despite a 1-0 victory in Jeddah thanks to a 39 minute goal from their Brazilian Leonardo da Silva Souza, what was unfolding in Riyadh had stirred the league title firmly in the direction of Al-Hilal after an outstanding first half display from Al-Za’eem.

Al-Hilal’s Juani Brown had made two changes from the side which had played Al-Ahli in Jeddah six days prior. Midfielder Abdullah Otaif had been forced out from the injury that saw him replaced five minutes into the second half of the 0-0 draw with Al-Ahli in the previous game – in his place came 23 year-old Mohamed Kanu for only his sixth start of the season.

 

 
In attack, the Argentine coach dropped Venezuelan striker Gelmin Rivas, with only one goal in his last seven league matches and started Syrian Omar Khrebin who returned to full fitness to make for his first league start in three months and produced one of his best performances of the season.

The 2017 AFC Player of the Year was unplayable in the opening forty-five minutes, hitting the bar after just four minutes from a 25 yard free kick which had the keeper beaten.

Three minutes later after Czech referee Pavel Královec had booked Al-Fateh’s defender Abdullah Al-Dossari for a foul on the Syrian striker on the edge of the box. Khrabin picked himself up, dusted himself off and stepped up to score the opening goal, beating the hapless Al-Fateh keeper Ali Al-Mazidi who got a hand on the ball but failed to save the Syrian striker’s effort, which seemed to go right through the keeper’s hands.

The Syrian doubled Al-Hilal’s lead on 14 minutes when he raced onto a long-ball from the defense beating the offside trap and with the onrushing custodian to beat, the striker coolly and calmly tucked the ball under the keeper to the deafening roar of the Al-Hilal faithful over the stadium, sensing that it was going to be their day.

Al-Za’eem were now in the ascendency and confidently moving the ball around the field and moments later Omar Khrebin could have completed his hat-trick but failed to connect to Ezequiel Cerutti’s headed knock-down in the six-yard box, kicking only thin air as he fluffed his lines.

But just 22 minutes later Khrebin was able to complete his 33-minute hat-trick to all but deliver the victory and the league title, beating the Al-Fateh goalkeeper with a low shot in the six yard box that went under the keeper after Moroccan Achraf Bencharki had put Cerutti clear down the right flank to square the ball to the Syrian striker, with the Al-Fateh keeper Al-Mazidi again at fault.

Al-Hilal were putting on a show and Bencharki’s delightful back-heel found Yasser Al-Shahrani and the full back got down the left to cut it back to the Moroccan Bencharki in the box to score the fourth five minutes before half-time.

In the second half, Brazilian João Pedro netted a late consolation for Al-Fateh, but the night and the victory was Al-Hilal’s, who were crowned 2018 Saudi League champions, with a convincing first half display to win their 15th league title.

FASTFACTS

Al-Hilal dominance

The 2018 league title for Al-Hilal marks the 15th time the Riyadh club have been crowned champions of Saudi Arabia

The sea was once a blessing for the Pakistani city of Gwadar. But it’s become a curse

Updated 2 min 32 sec ago
AP
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The sea was once a blessing for the Pakistani city of Gwadar. But it’s become a curse

  • In several areas near Gwadar, waves have swallowed up mosques, schools and settlements
  • Authorities have built seawalls, but they are not enough to resolve the climate change issue
Updated 2 min 32 sec ago
AP

GWADAR, Pakistan: There was a time when few people in the coastal Pakistani city of Gwadar understood what climate change was. After a decade of extreme weather, many more do.

Rain battered Gwadar for almost 30 consecutive hours last February. Torrents washed out roads, bridges, and lines of communication, briefly cutting the peninsula town off from the rest of Pakistan. Homes look like bombs have struck them and drivers swerve to avoid craters where asphalt used to be.

Gwadar is in Balochistan, an arid, mountainous, and vast province in Pakistan’s southwest that has searing summers and harsh winters. The city, with about 90,000 people, is built on sand dunes and bordered by the Arabian Sea on three sides, at a low elevation that makes it vulnerable to climate change in a country that has already seen its share of catastrophe from it.

“It’s no less than an island nation situation,” warned Gwadar-based hydrologist Pazeer Ahmed. “Many low-lying areas in the town will be partially or completely submerged if the sea level continues to rise.”

Houses reflect in standing water in a neighborhod of Gwadar, Pakistan, on January 14, 2025. (AP)

The sea, once a blessing for Gwadar’s fishing and domestic tourism sectors, has become an existential threat to lives and livelihoods.

Warming oceans mean bigger and more powerful waves, and those waves get whipped higher by summer monsoon winds. Warmer air holds more moisture — about 7 percent more per degree Celsius (4 percent per degree Fahrenheit) — and that means more big rain events.

“Waves have become more violent due to the rising sea temperatures and eroded beaches,” said Abdul Rahim, deputy environment director at Gwadar Development Authority. “The tidal actions and patterns have changed. Hundreds of homes have been washed away. It is very alarming.”

Melting glaciers contribute to rising sea levels, another cause of coastal erosion. The sea level at Karachi rose almost 8 inches (almost 20 centimeters) between 1916 and 2016, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It’s projected to rise another half-inch (about 1.3 centimeters) by 2040.

A laborer works at the construction site of a drainage system by the local government in the downtown of Gwadar, Pakistan, on January 13, 2025. (AP)

In areas near Gwadar, like Pishukan and Ganz, waves have swallowed up mosques, schools, and settlements. There are gashes in the cliffs at the popular picnic spot of Sunset Park, and rocks have cascaded onto the shore. Beaches run flat for dozens of kilometers because no structures remain on it.

Authorities have built seawalls from stone or concrete to hold back saltwater intrusion. But they’re a small solution to a massive problem as Gwadar’s people and businesses are fighting climate change on different fronts.

Saltwater pools on government land, salt crystals glistening in the sunshine. In the Shado Band neighborhood, former local councillor Qadir Baksh fretted about water seeping up through the ground and into his courtyard every day, held at bay only by regular pumping. Dozens of houses have the same problem, he said.

Amanullah shows a wall impacted by rising water in the compound of his home in a neighborhood of Gwadar, Pakistan, on January 14, 2025. (AP)

Officials, including Ahmed and Rahim, said changes in land use and unauthorized building are worsening flooding. Locals said some major construction projects have destroyed traditional drainage pathways.

Gwadar is the centerpiece of a massive Chinese-led initiative to create an overland route between its western Xinjiang region and the Arabian Sea through Gwadar. Hundreds of millions of dollars have poured into the town to create a deep seaport, an international airport, expressways and other infrastructure. The more sensitive projects, especially the port, are tightly secured by the Pakistani military, out of sight and off-limits to the public.

But there is no proper sewage or drainage system for residents despite a decade of foreign investment, and Gwadar’s porosity, high water table, rising sea levels, and heavier rainfall are rocket fuel for the town’s vulnerability.

There’s nowhere for the water to go.

People walk along a beach next to a cliff in Gwadar, Pakistan, on January 13, 2025. (AP)

“In the past when it rained, the water disappeared up to 10 days later,” said Baksh. “But the rain that came last year hasn’t gone. The water rises from the ground with such speed it will reach the four walls of my home if we don’t run the generator every day to extract it. Officials say it’s because of climate change but, whatever it is, we’re suffering.”

Gwadar’s fishing community is also hurting. Catches are smaller, native fish are disappearing, and migration patterns and fishing seasons have changed, said Ahmed and Rahim. There is also algae bloom and the invasion of unwanted marine species like pufferfish.

Illegal fishing and foreign trawlers are responsible for a few of these things, but it’s mostly rising sea temperatures.

People have migrated from places like Dasht and Kulanch because of water scarcity. What agriculture there was in Gwadar’s surrounding areas is vanishing due to loss of farmland and livestock deaths, according to locals. It’s part of a wider pattern in which Pakistan’s farmers are seeing declining crop yields and increasing crop diseases due to climate extremes, particularly floods, droughts and heat waves, according to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“There are heat waves and dust storms in Gwadar,” said Ahmed. “But the main impact of climate change here is that there is too much water and not enough of it. If nothing is done to address this problem, we will have no option but to retreat.”

Topics: Pakistan Gawadar China

Iraq’s famed ‘hunchback’ of Mosul rebuilt brick by brick

Updated 4 min 16 sec ago
AFP
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Iraq’s famed ‘hunchback’ of Mosul rebuilt brick by brick

  • The mosque and minaret were destroyed in June 2017 during the battle to oust IS from Mosul
  • Minaret and mosque are the latest landmarks in Mosul to be restored by United Nations heritage body UNESCO
Updated 4 min 16 sec ago
AFP
Mosul: The leaning minaret of Mosul in northern Iraq has been restored using its original brickwork, years after it was reduced to rubble under Daesh group rule.
The Al-Hadba or “hunchback” minaret is part of the historic Al-Nuri Mosque from where former IS chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in July 2014 declared his “caliphate” that committed atrocities across swathes of both Syria and Iraq.
The mosque and minaret were destroyed in June 2017 during the battle to oust Daesh from Mosul, and Iraq’s authorities accused the jihadists of planting explosives before their withdrawal.
The minaret and mosque are the latest landmarks in Mosul to be restored by United Nations heritage body UNESCO, whose teams have worked for five years to revive several sites there.
The Al-Hadba minaret of today is an exact replica of the old one, “built with the same bricks,” said Abdullah Mahmoud of the Iraqi department of antiquities.
“Al-Hadba is our identity, and by restoring it, the identity of the city has been reclaimed.”
The restored minaret’s tilt has been retained at 160 centimeters (63 inches), just as it was in the 1960s.
However, engineers have reinforced the foundations so it no longer leans quite so precariously, as it began to do gradually after being built in the 12th century.
“The minaret’s body from the inside needed 96,000 new bricks,” Mahmoud said.
“But for the exterior we used 26,000 old bricks” to preserve its historical legacy.

’Massive change’
Days before work was completed, hundreds of workers put the finishing touches to Al-Nuri’s columns, dome and yard.
Mahmoud said the mihrab, a niche indicating the direction of Makkah, has been largely repaired using its original stones.
But the minbar, from where sermons are delivered, has lost most of its original pieces.
Across the street, Imad Zaki, a former muezzin at the mosque, said: “Every day I stand here for an hour to watch as they are restored to their original state.”
“Today one can feel the spirituality. It’s as if our souls have finally found peace,” added the 52-year-old, wearing a long traditional Iraqi abaya, or robe.
Eighty percent of Mosul’s old city was destroyed in the fight against IS, and more than 12,000 tons of rubble was removed for the UNESCO restoration project, which also included Al-Tahira and Our Lady of the Hour churches and 124 heritage houses.
The Al-Tahira Church, dating from 1862, has been rebuilt with its arcades, embellished pillars and stained-glass windows.
During restoration, workers discovered an underground cellar and large jars once used for wine. It now has a glass ceiling so visitors can look inside.
Maria Acetoso, senior project manager at UNESCO Iraq, said the project aimed “to work in parallel on meaningful monuments for the city and also to bring life back” to Mosul.
“When I arrived here in 2019 it looked like a ghost city,” Acetoso said. “In five years plus, there has been a massive change.”
In Mosul on Wednesday, UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay hailed her team’s efforts and said on that the renovation had allowed “the identity of the city” to return.
Scars of battle
After IS was defeated, life returned to the city’s streets, where the chatter of patrons in small cafes blended with the clatter of construction work at the mosque.
In the coming weeks, Iraqi authorities will inaugurate the restored landmarks.
But Mosul still bears scars from the ferocious fight against IS.
Tucked away in narrow old city alleyways are ruined houses. Some bear the word “safe” scrawled in red on walls, signalling that they that have been cleared of explosives.
The crumbling walls and shattered windows tell tales of displacement. Their original owners, mostly Christian, have yet to return.
Mohammed Kassem, 59, came back to the old city a few years ago, to a new house as his former home was just debris.
Mosul still “needs a great deal” of work before it is back to normal, he said.
“It needs its former residents... the Christians to come back. This is their place,” Kassem added.
Across the street from Al-Nuri Mosque, Saad Mohammed, 65, said he hoped the restoration efforts will attract visitors to Mosul, although he still feels sad because of what it has lost.
But he couldn’t help but smile when he looked up at the minaret from his little shop.
“We opened the window once and saw the black IS flag on top of the minaret. Then we opened it again and the minaret was gone,” said Mohammed, who never left Mosul, even at the height of the fighting.
“Today the minaret has risen again, alongside the mosque and the churches. Now we feel safe,” he said.

Malaysia says forced displacement of Palestinians would be ethnic cleansing

Updated 11 min 7 sec ago
Reuters
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Malaysia says forced displacement of Palestinians would be ethnic cleansing

  • Muslim-majority Malaysia has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause and has long advocated for a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians
Updated 11 min 7 sec ago
Reuters
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia sees any proposal for the forced displacement of Palestinians as constituting ethnic cleansing and a violation of international law, the foreign ministry said on Thursday after US President Donald Trump proposed a US takeover of Gaza.
“Malaysia strongly opposes any proposal that could lead to the forced displacement or movement of Palestinians from their homeland. Such inhumane actions constitute ethnic cleansing and are clear violations of international law and multiple UN resolutions,” the statement said.
The ministry said it supported a two-state solution as the path to lasting peace and stability.
Muslim-majority Malaysia has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause and has long advocated for a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Malaysia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has said he maintains good relations with the political wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas but has no connection with its military wing.
Neighbouring Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, said late on Wednesday it rejected “any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians or alter the demographic composition of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Any such action would obstruct a two-state solution being realized, the ministry said, saying Indonesia called on the international community to ensure respect for international law.

Pioneering Pakistan woman MMA fighter breaks barriers ... and arms

Updated 22 min 6 sec ago
AFP
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Pioneering Pakistan woman MMA fighter breaks barriers ... and arms

  • Anita Karim comes from Gilgit-Baltistan and is nicknamed ‘the arm collector’ due to her fierce performances
  • She originally trained in taekwondo and jiu-jitsu before discovering MMA at high school in Islamabad
Updated 22 min 6 sec ago
AFP

ISLAMABAD: Growing up in the rugged northern reaches of Pakistan, Anita Karim honed her combat skills fighting with three older brothers who pulled no punches.

The bruising experience prepared her for a career in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) — blending Thai kickboxing, Japanese judo and wrestling — and she is now the nation’s pre-eminent woman fighter.

“The village where I come from, they support women fighters,” she told AFP. “But when I started MMA, they had no awareness of this sport.”

“They said it’s a men’s game exclusively and a woman cannot do that one,” the 28-year-old said.

In this photograph taken on December 11, 2024, Anita Karim (R) and Bushra Ahmed, mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters, take part in a training session at a club in Islamabad. (AFP/File)

Eight years ago she won the right to enter the ring, swiftly becoming Pakistan’s first internationally competing woman MMA fighter and appearing in Asia’s biggest promotion, ONE Championship.

“Now misogynistic comments and criticisms have stopped,” she said at her gym in the capital Islamabad, where she trains without heating in the octagonal “cage” where fighters face off.

It is unusual for women to take up sport in deeply conservative Pakistan, where it is often forbidden by families.

But Karim’s native Gilgit-Baltistan region — where female modesty codes are more relaxed — has become an incubator for women’s sport.

In October, two sisters from the region, Maliha and Maneesha Ali, brought back gold and bronze from a taekwondo competition in Indonesia.

Karim’s brother Uloomi, who became her coach after being on the receiving end of her blows, said support began at home.

In this photograph taken on December 11, 2024, Anita Karim (2L), a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, warms up with her brother and coach Uloomi (L) before a training session at a club in Islamabad. (AFP/File)

“When she showed the commitment, the dedication, we knew that she was going to make it,” said the 33-year-old, standing in their family-owned gym.

“We knew that she could take it and we did not have any issues with her training with any guy.”

Surprisingly timid outside the ring, Karim is at the head of a cohort of Pakistani female MMA fighters — five from Gilgit-Baltistan, according to the regional government.

“She’s shy, but when she enters the cage, it’s completely different,” said Uloomi, who has also competed in the sport.

Her speciality is the armlock, deployed with an agonizing all-body grip, which aims to force an opponent to “tap out” in submission before bones are broken or joints wrecked.

In 2022 she was pictured atop a podium in Pakistan with two opponents wearing slings on their injured arms — a performance that earned her the nickname “the arm collector.”

“They could have tapped to stop the fight, but they didn’t, so I went through with it,” she said.

In this photograph taken on December 11, 2024, Anita Karim (top) and Bushra Ahmed, mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters, take part in a training session at a club in Islamabad. (AFP/File)

In her hometown, Karim originally trained in taekwondo and jiu-jitsu before discovering MMA at high school in Islamabad — to the consternation of her community back home.

“A lot of people close to me criticized me, but that’s part of the game. Now they know how it works,” she said.

The message emanating from her hometown now is one of pride.

“The way she has made the name of Gilgit-Baltistan and all of Pakistan shine on the international level, serves as a lesson,” said the regional government’s sports chief Shah Muhammad.

After losing on her professional debut in 2018, where the referee refused to let her fight unless she raised her leggings above the knee, she moved to Thailand to train at an MMA academy.

She now earns a living from competition prizes, modest government grants and coaching at her Islamabad gym.

When she returns after competitions, small crowds gather to greet her at the airport and she is followed by a fledgling community of female fighters.

They too want to turn professional in a nation where only one in five women have jobs, according to United Nations figures.

“Anita is a role model for us,” said Bushra Ahmed, a few years Karim’s junior and out of breath as she trains alongside her, another woman and a dozen men.

Karim also wants to “give Pakistani women confidence and self-defense techniques,” with over 80 percent having been victims of public harassment, according to the UN.

Recently she “hit a man who was harassing me in a market in Islamabad,” Karim said.

“He left with his face stained with blood.”

Topics: Anita Karim MMA Mixed martial arts

Italian qualifier Bellucci stuns Medvedev in Rotterdam

Updated 24 min 2 sec ago
AFP
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Italian qualifier Bellucci stuns Medvedev in Rotterdam

  • The Italian, who also reached the last eight in Atlanta in 2024, will next play sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas or Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor for a spot in the semifinals
  • Former US Open champion Medvedev, ranked seven in the world, had defeated veteran Stan Wawrinka in the first round but has struggled at the start of 2025
Updated 24 min 2 sec ago
AFP

ROTTERDAM: Italian qualifier Mattia Bellucci stunned former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in three tough sets on Wednesday to reach the Rotterdam ATP quarterfinals.

The 23-year-old left-hander, playing on a career-high ranking of 92, came through 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3 to record a first win over a top 10 opponent.

“It was a three-hour match and I really enjoyed every moment of it. I really tried to do the best I could. I’m pretty tired but I’m happy,” said Bellucci.

“I was going for the serve and volley which is not something I’m used to doing but it worked pretty good today.”

Bellucci held his nerve in the decider, where he saved six break points, after squandering a match point in the second set tie-break against the 2023 champion in Rotterdam.

The Italian, who also reached the last eight in Atlanta in 2024, will next play sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas or Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor for a spot in the semifinals.

Former US Open champion Medvedev, ranked seven in the world, had defeated veteran Stan Wawrinka in the first round but has struggled at the start of 2025 having lost in the second round of the Australian Open last month.

Topics: tennis Rotterdam Mattia Bellucci Daniil Medvedev

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Pakistan vows legal job pathways abroad as bodies from Morocco boat tragedy arrive in Islamabad
The sea was once a blessing for the Pakistani city of Gwadar. But it’s become a curse
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Malaysia says forced displacement of Palestinians would be ethnic cleansing
Pioneering Pakistan woman MMA fighter breaks barriers ... and arms

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