The UAE’s Hottest New Launches and Property Headlines

**Tim Elliott** (0:00)
This is the Morning Drive from Mira Business FM, property once again. And here is our property expert. He is a newspaper columnist with The National Newspaper. He is a podcaster and an all-round sharp-dressed man, Mario Volpi.

**Mario Volpi** (0:15)
Good morning, Tim.

**Tim Elliott** (0:16)
I'm really digging the suit with the red tie this morning.

**Mario Volpi** (0:20)
Thank you.

**Tim Elliott** (0:21)
I like the idea of 70s parlance, the dig in a suit, but you look very well. Nice to see you.

**Mario Volpi** (0:26)
Thank you.

**Tim Elliott** (0:27)
Do you want to talk about the World Cup or Colpalmo? That's what we were talking about just now.

**Mario Volpi** (0:32)
I was listening in the green room a little bit. Yeah, I mean, football is very tribal. It's life, as they say.
Was it Stanley Matthews that said that? Or was it Colpalmo?

**Tim Elliott** (0:44)
It was the guy in Ted Lasso. I saw the Mexican player in Richmond Football Club. What was it? AFC Richmond, wasn't it? Football is life. Danny Rojas.

**Mario Volpi** (0:54)
That was my manor in Richmond.

**Tim Elliott** (0:57)
I know, you're from that area, aren't you?

**Mario Volpi** (0:59)
And whilst it's filmed in Richmond, it is a fictitious club.

**Tim Elliott** (1:04)
Fictitious club.

**Mario Volpi** (1:06)
But the area, and there's a shop now there, and you can buy all the memorabilia. It's super expensive, though. I bought a believe badge, and it was like five pounds or something, for a tiny little pin.

**Tim Elliott** (1:20)
Yeah, but they saw you coming, and they thought...

**Mario Volpi** (1:21)
Well, they did, because often we're losing 2-0, you've got to believe.

**Tim Elliott** (1:27)
There's a lot of truth in that, that half-time team talk, believe in what you can do. There's a great deal. I like that.

**Mario Volpi** (1:33)
Yeah, look, football is amazing. It takes over pretty much all my life when I'm not in real estate, as you know, with Chelsea. But I'm very disappointed being an Italian national. And this is the third World Cup in a row, that Italy is not there. And it is a national disgrace as far as I'm concerned. And we're clearly rotten to the core from the top down. We need to make some changes. Ironically, the under 17s won the European Championship recently, I think it was a few days ago. So that bodes well maybe for the next World Cup. One would hope that we could actually qualify.
But I was just talking to the gentleman in the green room as well saying that, I mean, and I'm not trying to sort of pick holes here, but Italy got more points and didn't qualify than some of these lesser known areas or African areas or Asian areas in terms of they qualified on less points. Because Europe has so many, I suppose they have to raise the standards. I get it, but it's just so disappointing. And a World Cup without Italy is, to me, doesn't seem a World Cup. Having said all of that, when Trump perhaps eluded to Meloni that maybe Italy could get in via the back door, she slammed that door saying, no, thank you.
And rightly so, because one wouldn't want to be there under pretenses. And actually, I think the way we've been playing, we probably wouldn't even get out the group. Although I think if you win one game, because there's so many teams now, I think if you win one game, you've got a chance of getting through to the next round. But anyway, the point I'm saying is, I don't think we didn't deserve it. Yes, it's terrible, but what to do? We can just dust off and start building again.

**Tim Elliott** (3:35)
Well, you've got six weeks of...

**Mario Volpi** (3:36)
No, I mean, we've got four years to build again.

**Tim Elliott** (3:40)
No, that's true. We've now got six weeks of early mornings, late nights and all sorts of stuff. Let's see what happens. Who would be your bet for the tournament? Who would you favor?
Do you think? Because it starts tomorrow.

**Mario Volpi** (3:54)
Yeah, look, I think England have a shout.
France, obviously. Spain.

**Tim Elliott** (4:01)
Are France favorites? They're out there, aren't they?

**Mario Volpi** (4:03)
They're definitely out there. Everyone's saying Brazil is good, but I'm not so sure Brazil will go as far as they think. Look, you've got Argentina, who is the world champions. Let's see if they're able to hold on. In fact, apparently I heard there's only two teams that have won back-to-back world cups. One was Italy in 1934, 1938, and one was Brazil in the 50s.