Logo
Sunday, September 15, 2024
SIGN IN
SUBSCRIBE
×
Subscribe now for Gulf Times
Personalise your news and receive Newsletters!
By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy .
SPORTS
Marseille continue strong start
AFP MARSEILLE
PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 15, 2024 | 12:16 AM
Marseille’s Pol Lirola (right) vies for the ball with Nice’s Tom Alexis Louchet during the French Ligue 1 match in Marseille, southern France. (AFP)
Marseille’s Pol Lirola (right) vies for the ball with Nice’s Tom Alexis Louchet during the French Ligue 1 match in Marseille, southern France. (AFP)
Marseille continued their impressive start to the season under new coach Roberto De Zerbi by beating Nice 2-0 to go provisionally top of Ligue 1, despite finishing the match with 10 men.
Mason Greenwood was unable to add to his remarkable tally of five goals in his first three matches in French football, but there was a debut goal for new signing Neal Maupay before a brilliant strike by Luis Henrique sealed the victory. Marseille had Canadian defender Derek Cornelius sent off late on, but held on for the win which moved them to 10 points from four matches.
That lifted them a point clear of Paris Saint-Germain, although the defending champions will return to the summit if they can maintain their perfect start to the campaign by beating Brest. “We have had an almost perfect start. I wasn’t too pleased with how we played today, but football is not just about quality. It is also about character, and blood, and in that sense we were excellent,” said De Zerbi.
The game at the Velodrome was watched by a crowd of more than 65,000 and there was a celebratory atmosphere as Marseille wore a collectors’ edition shirt to mark their 125th birthday and fans set off fireworks late on, bringing the game to a brief halt. “In such passionate cities, you need a strong link between fans and players, otherwise you can’t do anything,” De Zerbi said when asked about the raucous atmosphere.
Maupay opened the scoring five minutes before half-time in this Mediterranean derby when he headed in a deflected cross by Luis Henrique for his first goal since returning to French football from Everton. Luis Henrique, the Brazilian winger, made it 2-0 with a magnificent goal eight minutes into the second half as he came in off the left flank and played a quick exchange with Amine Harit before curling a shot high into the net.
Cornelius was dismissed for a second yellow late on 75 minutes, but that did not stop OM getting all three points, and hopes will be high that they can push PSG in the title race if they can keep playing like this. “Just as the fans have dreams, so do we, but there is also the reality. We have made so many changes in a short time and we still have huge margin for improvement,” De Zerbi added.
RELATED STORY
Gulf Times
QU department celebrates success of Smart Start Campaign in primary schools
Gulf Times
Department of Meteorology warns of strong wind and high sea
AFP MARSEILLE
LAST EDITED SEPTEMBER 15, 2024 | 12:16 AM
MOST READ STORIES
1
Gulf Times
QATAR
Ooredoo Qatar announces pre-order for iPhone 16
Friday, September 13, 2024
2
Gulf Times
QATAR
Meteorology department warns of poor porizontal visibility expected today
Friday, September 13, 2024
3
By April, the overall supply of hotel key in Qatar reached 39,715, of which approximately 10,000 were hotel apartments, adding about 90% of hotel rooms in Qatar are classed as four star of five-star, with the majority of apartments being classed as ‘deluxe’.
FILE PICTURE: Thajudheen
BUSINESS
Qatar’s hotel pipeline set to ease despite robust occupancy: CWQ
Friday, September 13, 2024
4
Gulf Times
COMMUNITY
Doha student is literacy envoy
Friday, September 13, 2024
WATCH IT
No Image
Brazil sanctuary fears no ‘safe’ place for jaguars to ‘return’ as fires rage
No Image
Aftermath of an Israeli strike on a school-turned-displacement shelter in Gaza’s Nuseirat
No Image
Apple unveils new iPhone built for AI
No Image
Gord to mass produce carbonate-based plaster from waste
Donald Trump and Elon Musk tour the Firing Room Four after the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft on Nasa’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 30, 2020. (Reuters)
Trump plan for Musk-led efficiency body could give CEO big influence
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Billionaire Elon Musk will head a government efficiency commission with a vast remit if Donald Trump is elected US president, potentially putting him in position to change the rules for corporate America, including the wide swath of industries in which his companies compete. Trump on Thursday announced the plan, including Musk’s role, and said he wanted to see recommendations for “drastic reforms,” starting with hunting down fraud and improper payments, that would target “the entire federal government.”The commission would put Musk, who leads rocket company SpaceX, electric carmaker Tesla, technology companies X and xAI and several others, a chance to plan the slimmer government Republicans often advocate, but could see him making rules that directly affect his own work and wealth. Musk repeatedly suggested creating a government efficiency commission in a public conversation with Trump on social media platform X in August, saying that government spending should be trimmed to a sensible level and that Musk himself was willing to help.Trump in the conversation responded that Musk was “the greatest cutter” of jobs. Presidential commissions have been created on a number of topics, such as when President Joe Biden created one to examine the idea of reforming the Supreme Court, said Nikolas Guggenberger, an assistant professor of law at University of Houston Law Center, whose work focuses on antitrust, law and technology. But Musk’s significant relationships with the US government, worth billions of dollars, make it a different matter.“He has a large company that sells electric vehicles, he has a large company that sells satellites, he has a social media platform. In all those areas, you can imagine advice being tainted by the fact that he has strong economic interests,” Guggenberger said.To be sure, Trump gave few details of how the commission would work but described it as carrying out audits and making recommendations, which has been tried before. “There’s already been many, many audits done and recommendations made for efficiency,” said Cristina Chaplain, a former director at the Government Accountability Office. Moreover, changing laws and rules is complicated. While business people could bring a fresh perspective, she added, “that often clashes with reality of government operations, and laws and regulations that affect them.”Musk has chafed for years at what he sees as government inefficiency, and his own corporations are heavily regulated: SpaceX must obtain signoffs for rocket launches and new technology; auto regulators are scrutinising the safety of Tesla’s self-driving technology; and health agencies must approve much of the work done by his brain technology implant startup Neuralink.Some investors would welcome his influence in Washington.“Musk cleaned house at Twitter. He’d cut the fat out of government spending as well,” said Triple D Trading analyst Dennis Dick, who has a long position in Tesla, referring to Musk’s huge job cuts when he took over the social media firm.Musk’s view of efficiency in the space sector and elsewhere could spark action that hurts rivals, some space industry experts said. That could mean viewing government efforts to sustain multiple vendors of rockets as wasteful, for instance.“There’s a lot of people who are nervous about Musk, just because of the policies he promotes and the statements he makes and the fights he gets into with governments,” said Tim Farrar, a satellite industry analyst.Investors frequently ask whether Musk is doing too much. “He’s going to spread himself thinner and try to make the government efficient, as well as running an electric car company, a space company, the Boring company and Twitter? Something would have to give,” said Sam Fiorani, vice-president at research firm AutoForecast Solutions.“You can’t imagine Elon Musk would volunteer to work for a president who was planning on dismantling his business,” said Fiorani, adding the EV market could benefit overall.Musk did not respond to a request for comment but wrote on X of the efficiency commission, “This is badly needed.”Tom Schatz, president of the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste, which grew out of a commission under President Ronald Reagan, said there was precedent for vast savings. Moreover, bringing in more executives would spread the responsibility.“With the right team working on this full-time, the chairman of these task forces is not the one who works every minute of every day on it,” he said. “With someone of Elon Musk’s stature, that would help bring in other CEOs, other independent, non-governmental people to come in and examine the operations of the federal government.”
US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin (left) applauds Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting early this month at the US air base in Ramstein, southwestern Germany. (AFP)
How to work Kursk gambit
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Gulf Times
Pollution chokes global economies and heats up the planet as well
Sunday, September 15, 2024
French Air Force Elite acrobatic flying team “Patrouille de France” performs over the Arc de Triomphe as French athletes who competed in the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games appear on stage at the end of their parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on Saturday. AFP
France bids final farewell to Olympics with Champs-Elysees parade
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon celebrates after winning the Women’s 1500m final.
Samba second as Santos wins Diamond League title
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Al Ahli and Qatar SC players vie for the ball at the Khalifa International Stadium.
Edmilson’s double extends Duhail lead at the top
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Two highlight races of the day are the Group 1 Qatar Prix Vermeille and Group 1 PA Qatar Cup – Prix Dragon.
Qatar Arc Trials attracts top entries at ParisLongchamp
Sunday, September 15, 2024
All Rights Reserved © Gulf Times.
Be the first to comment