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Day: 28 September 2020

Leclerc escapes penalty in Russian Grand Prix

by: Stephanie Horsman
28/09/2020

After a few dismal showings, Charles Leclerc clawed his way to a sixth place finish at the Russian Grand Prix, but the race was not without controversy.

Racing Point pilot Lance Stroll was clearly irritated that Charles Leclerc escaped penalty for clipping him and putting him out of the race in the opening lap at the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday.

In an interview with Formula1.com, The Canadian pilot said rather churlishly, “Very sloppy from his part and I gave him all the room. I’m quite surprised that he didn’t get a penalty. I gave him plenty of room, I did the whole corner on the outside and he just tagged my right rear.”
“He could have avoided it. He didn’t have to run so wide into me, so I think it’s kind of ridiculous that he didn’t get a penalty,” he added.
Leclerc slid down the inside on the fourth turn and clipped Stroll’s right rear upon exiting the corner. This caused Stroll to spin out into the wall, ending his race before it had hardly begun. 
For Leclerc’s part, he went on to have one of his best races of late, bringing his Ferrari in at sixth place. The Monegasque didn’t seem fazed by the incident, posting on his Twitter account that he was, “Back in the points today, P6. Some positive signs for the future.”
Meanwhile, the wacky weekend continued as Lewis Hamilton accused F1 bosses of giving him two-five second penalties because they are “out to get him”, thus denying him a record-tying all-time win tally. The win, which would have been his 91st – equalling the record set by racing legend Michael Schumacher, was handed instead to his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas who came in 7.7 seconds before Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

 

Monaco's football club puts historic shirts up for auction

by: Stephanie Horsman
28/09/2020

AS Monaco is set to auction signed versions of the “Merci” jerseys dedicated to health care workers and worn during their historic 1,000th victory game against Nantes.

The special jerseys are being auctioned from this Thursday, 1st September on the site MatchWornShirt.

The shirts, emblazoned with “Merci” across the chest, will be signed by players and will be doubly exceptional to fans as they were also worn on the night of the team’s 1,000th Ligue 1 win. The bidding starts at €89 and all proceeds will go to the club’s charity programme, AS Monacœur.  

The “Merci” match saw volunteers from the Monaco red Cross and employees from the Princess Grace Hospital invited to attend at the behest of the AS Monacœur programme.  

AS Monacœur was launched in 2017 to support the Monegasque association Les Enfants de Frankie. The club has dedicated itself to giving underprivileged and sick kids chances they might otherwise not enjoy. Some of the programme’s initiatives include visiting children in hospital, creating fan experiences, interaction with regional football clubs and supporting local foundations, to name a few.

The shirts will have been disinfected using a UV-C light to remove all DNA, bacteria and viruses, thus eliminating any health risks.  

Bids can be placed on the MatchWornShirt website starting at 8:pm on Thursday, 1st October and will continue until midnight Sunday, 4th October. Visit the website here: https://matchwornshirt.com/club/asmonaco.

 
Photo by AS Monaco
 
 

1st quarter results show 74% loss in turnover

by: Cassandra Tanti
28/09/2020

The health crisis is thwarting the recovery efforts of Monaco’s largest employer, SBM, which saw profits plummet this summer ahead of a “very difficult” winter.
It was difficult to celebrate the Société des Bains de Mer’s (SBM) record financial year on Friday at the shareholder’s meeting. General Manager Jean-Claude Biamonti had the unenviable task of following the impressive figures with the disastrous position that the SBM finds itself in this year.
“We were on the road to recovery, we were almost there,” Mr Biamonti told the press during a debrief at the Hermitage Hotel.
After years of sitting in the red, the company in charge of managing Monaco’s main hotels and casinos achieved record profits for the second year in a row, bringing in €619.9 million against €526.5 million the previous financial year – an increase of 18%. Growth was seen in all sectors, particularly rental, where the leasing of new commercial spaces at the Hôtel de Paris and in the One Monte-Carlo complex, and the letting of residential apartments at One Monte-Carlo, led to an increase in operating income of €34 million.
“The last month of the fiscal year, however, was strongly impacted by the consequences of the Covid-19 epidemic,” said Mr Biamonti.
Due to the closure of all of its casinos, restaurants, and hotels – with the exception of the Hôtel de Paris and the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort – SBM lost around €15 million in turnover.
It is a trend that continued well into summer.
During the first quarter of this financial year, from 1st April to 30th June, SBM’s financial activity dropped by 74% compared to the same period last year.
The gaming sector was hardest hit during the summer with turnover down 63%, partly due to the lack of international customers, particularly for private table games.
Two of SBM’s casinos – Sun Casino and the Monte-Carlo Bay Casino, were never reopened after the initial closure, and they are unlikely to reopen in the foreseeable future, according to the general manager.
After this “mediocre” summer, SBM is now heading into a “very difficult” winter, said Mr Biamonti, and he expects there to be a “significant impact” on the 2020/2021 financial year.
As a result, SBM has ceased almost all of its investment activity and staff have been redeployed as much as possible to avoid resorting to the government’s partial unemployment system, which in itself is costly for the State.
“I cannot guarantee that there will be no economic measures in the weeks and months to come,” conceded the general manager.
 
Related stories: 

SBM continues upwards trend in 2019-20 fiscal report

 
Photo: SBM General Manager Jean-Luc Biamonti, by Monaco Life
 
 
 

Nine-man Monaco takes victory

by: Stephanie Horsman
28/09/2020

AS Monaco showed they have the right stuff when, despite some difficult moments, they held off Strasbourg for a 3-2 win at home on Sunday.
Winning their third match of the season, AS Monaco came out on top over Strasbourg in a game that saw them two men down for the last 25 minutes.
Despite the disadvantage, the team rose to the challenge and played a spectacular match against worthy opponents.
The first goal came in the ninth minute, as Kevin Volland set Wissam Ben Yedder up for a perfectly timed shot into the corner of the net, edging past Strasbourg Goalkeeper Bingourou Kamara. The goalie didn’t make that mistake again when in the 14th, he blocked a beautiful kick by Aurelien Tchouameni, and another in the 21stwith a one-two from Ben Yedder and Fodé Ballo-Toure.
Before the end of the first half, the Red and Whites struck again, at 45’ +2’. Ruben Aguliar aimed at the far end of the post and made it past Karama with a fantastic header.
After the break, Strasbourg came out determined. So determined, in fact, that within a minute, they lessened the score gap to 2-1 with a goal by substitute Medhi Chahiri. Ben Yedder leapt back into action and in the 53rd minute took control of the ball and put it between the posts on another Volland assist.
Not long after, Tchouameni was handed a red card, thus ejecting him from the rest of the game. One man down, the team carried on and held the score at 3-1. But in the 67th minute, Axel Disasi was given walking papers after a foul on Ludovic Ajorque.
Now two men down, the Strasbourg team launched an attack that resulted in another goal by Ajorque, cutting the Monaco lead to one point.
Undeterred, the red and Whites played strongly and kept the Alsatians at bay. They played out the remainder of the match two men down, and without another goal scored by either team.
Coach Kovac was overjoyed by the result and said after the game: “We finished brilliantly and those who came on did their part by showing character and giving all they had. It’s a unifying victory, that’s what I told the players.”
Team captain and top scorer of the game Wissam Ben Yedder was also proud of the team, adding: “At the end of the game I saw the determination and the desire not to want to concede a goal. We have a young team, but we have a lot of character and personality. They have shown these values and what they did in the last 20 minutes to not concede a goal is very good and bodes well for the future.”
AS Monaco faces Brest next Sunday at Stade Francis-Le Ble.
 
 

Ocean conference looks at better pollution solutions

by: Stephanie Horsman
28/09/2020

Experts have revealed during an ocean conference in Monaco that society must go on the offence, not the defence, if it wants to stop the problems plaguing our seas.

The Oceanographic Museum was the scene on Wednesday evening for a conference held on the future of the seas called ‘Ocean Health, Human Health’. The event, co-organised by the museum, the Prince Albert II Foundation and French magazine L’Obs, was part of the Week of Planetary Health, and attracted many in-house participants and guests as well as followers on YouTube, where the event was broadcast.

The bottom line coming from the speakers was that the oceans are in need of a lot of help. Between overfishing, plastic and agricultural pollution, and global warming, the seas are in big trouble.

The conference was opened by Robert Calcagno, Director General of the Oceanographic Institute, and punctuated with the speeches by Professor Patrick Rampal, President of the Scientific Centre of Monaco (CSM), Lucile Courtial, from the association Beyond Plastic Méditerranée (BeMed) and François Houllier, President and CEO of IFREMER.

Mr Calcagno reminded listeners of the links between the oceans and man and explained that health meant not simply the absence of disease, but that it has a broader meaning in the context of general well-being. He also highlighted the contributions and research offered by the agencies in attendance.

A video on the virtues of net and line fishing versus industrial trawling was then shown and the stage was taken over by Patrick Ramal. Mr. Rampal announced that a report would be made available from research undertaken during the lockdown period when the sea had a chance to rest from all the usual human interference. He said that research shows it is possible to preserve the planet if we act now, adding, “Humanity cannot survive without healthy oceans. Marine plants in the oceans produce 70% of the oxygen we breathe on land. Two billion people depend on the product of the oceans for their protein intake, 97% of our water resources come from the oceans. The ocean absorbs 30% of the CO2 produced by human activity. The oceans are in great danger because of their pollution which is due to the huge amount of waste that we dump there every year.”

After pointing out the laundry list of ills affecting the oceans, such as the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an enormous vortex of mainly plastic rubbish that equals an area roughly a fifth of the size of Europe in the North Pacific Ocean, the high levels of pollutants found in fish, especially the larger marine predators who feed on smaller fish and that we as humans consume regularly, and the widespread use of pesticides and livestock waste that gets habitually dumped into the seas, he handed the stage over to François Houllier.

 

Mr Houllier emphasised the links between human health, animal health and, finally, that of the environment in general. He pointed to aquaculture as a possible solution to some of the problems currently being faced, especially in terms of food security. He cited that it is a sustainable way forward as the demands on the seas to provide food for humans increases.

 

Lucile Courtial then spoke about one of the biggest pollution problems and the one that is currently at the top of most environmental agendas: plastics. Consumers, she says, are slowly becoming savvier and more conscious of plastic usage and are beginning to make efforts to reduce. On the industry side, Ms Courtial’s organisation has been working with manufacturers to look at alternatives to plastic packaging to reduce waste.