Palermo Football Club, shortened to Palermo F.C. and usually simply known as Palermo (), is an Italian professional football club based in Palermo, Sicily, that currently plays in Serie B. It is part of the City Football Group.

Founded for the first time on 1 November 1900 as Anglo Palermitan Athletic and Football Club, Palermo is one of the oldest clubs in Italy

Among the club's accomplishments are a Coppa Italia Serie C, won in the 1992–93, and five Serie B league titles. It also appeared in three Italian Cup finals: in 1973-74, in 1978-79 and in 2010-11; and made 29 appearances in Serie A.

Internationally, the club has made five appearances in European competitions, all in the UEFA Cup/Europa League.

History

Early history (1898–1947)

There is some debate and uncertainty about the exact date the club was founded. Some authorities believe that it may have been founded as early as 1898 due to the existence of papers addressed to Joseph Whitaker, English ornithologist in Palermo and originally believed to be first club president, about a Palermo football team founded in the month of April of that year. Conversely, another source cites that in April 1897, the future founders of Palemo Calcio founded the association Sport Club. The most common and officially stated foundation date is 1 November 1900, as the Anglo Palermitan Athletic and Football Club. The club is thought to have been founded by Ignazio Majo Pagano, a young Palermitan colleague of Whitaker who had discovered football while at college in London in the UK, where the modern game of association football originated. The initial staff comprised three Englishmen and nine natives of Palermo, with Whitaker as honorary chairman, Edward De Garston as inaugural president and with red and blue as the original team colours. The first recorded football match, played by the team on 30 December 1900, ended in a 5–0 defeat to an unidentified amateur English team. The club's first official match, played on 18 April 1901 against Messina Football Club, ended in a 3–2 victory for the Palermitan side.

In 1907, the club changed its name to Palermo Foot-Ball Club, and the team colours were changed to the current pink and black. From 1908 until Italy's entry in World War I in 1915, Palermo was featured in the Lipton Challenge Cup, organised by Scottish businessman Sir Thomas Lipton. The competition saw them face off against Naples FBC; Palermo won the competition three times, including a 6–0 victory in 1912.

After a gap during the First World War, the club was refounded in 1919 as Unione Sportiva Palermo, by a committee of young university students and sportsmen. During the early 1920s, the club mainly competed in the Campionato Lega Sud, a football league in Southern Italy, reaching the semi-finals in 1924 before being knocked out by Audace Taranto, Alba Roma and Internaples. The club was dissolved in 1927 due to financial problems, but was reformed one year later following a merger with Vigor Palermo under the name Palermo FootBall Club. Originally admitted to Prima Divisione (First Division), the equivalent of today's Serie C1, the team was promoted to Serie B in 1930 and finally reached Serie A in 1932. From its debut season in Italy's top division, Palermo relocated to a new home, the Stadio Littorio (Lictorian Stadium) in the Favorita neighbourhood, today known as Stadio Renzo Barbera. The club played in Serie A until 1936, when they were relegated to Serie B and first played Catania in the Sicilian derby.

In 1936, Palermo was forced by the fascist regime to change its colours to yellow and red, after the official colours of the local municipality. Meanwhile, economic difficulties arose, and in 1940 the club was expelled by the Italian Football Federation because of financial problems. A merger with Unione Sportiva Juventina Palermo brought the foundation of Unione Sportiva Palermo-Juventina, which joined Serie C in 1941 and Serie B in 1942.

The club could not finish the 1942–43 season due to the outbreak of World War II. At the same time the pink-and-black colors were chosen because Sicily became a "war zone". After the conflict, the club changed its name to US Palermo.

Post-war years (1947–2002)
After World War II, the team returned to Serie A by winning the Serie B championship of 1947–48. The new Palermo squad featured players such as Czechoslovakian legend Čestmír Vycpálek who signed from Juventus alongside Conti, Carmelo Di Bella and Pavesi. Palermo played Serie A until they were relegated in 1954. Massive changes in the board, as well as the manager's job and the squad, proved successful and the club returned to Serie A in 1956. Palermo became a "yo-yo club", bouncing up and down between the top two Italian leagues. Several stars played for Palermo during this period, such as Argentine striker Santiago Vernazza (51 goals in 115 games with the Rosanero), goalkeepers Roberto Anzolin and Carlo Mattrel, Giuseppe Furino and Franco Causio. Palermo marked its best campaign in 1961–62 season, finishing in eighth place in Serie A. In 1963, however, they were relegated to Serie B, where they played for five seasons. Palermo played again in Serie A between 1968 and 1970.

In 1970, Renzo Barbera took over the club as the new chairman. After 1973, Palermo FBC remained firmly rooted in Serie B. Despite this, Palermo reached two Italian Cup finals, both of which they narrowly lost: in 1974 to Bologna on penalty shoot-outs, and in 1979 to Juventus after extra time. Barbera left the club in 1980 and Palermo were relegated to Serie C1 four years later. The 1985–86 season, however, which ended in the summer, was the last for Palermo FBC, as, having just saved themselves from relegation, the club was expelled by the football federation due to financial problems. In the summer of 1987, after a year without professional football in Palermo, the club was re-founded bearing a new name, and began to play in Serie C2, which it promptly won.

In the 1990s, Palermo played between Serie B and Serie C1 with a few highs, such as its 1995–96 Serie B and Coppa Italia campaign, the latter ending in the quarter-finals, and a number of lows such as the 1998 relegation to Serie C2 after defeat in the play-offs to Battipagliese, later revoked by the federation to fill a vacant league slot.

In March 2000, Roma chairman Franco Sensi led a holding company to purchase Palermo and Sergio D'Antoni became the president of Palermo and Palermo were promoted to Serie B one year later after a dramatic final week of the season, with Palermo coming back from behind to take first place from league-toppers Sicilian rivals Messina. The first comeback season in the Serie B, with Bortolo Mutti as head coach, was an eventless one, with Palermo ending in a mid-table placement.

The Zamparini era: back to Serie A and European years (2002–2013)

In the summer of 2002, Friulian businessman and Venezia owner Maurizio Zamparini acquired the club from Franco Sensi in a €15 million bid, with the clear intention to bring Palermo back to Serie A and establish the club as a Serie A regular with aims of participations to European competitions. Palermo failed in its first attempt to reach the Serie A in 2002–03 on the final week of the season, but later managed to achieve it after a hard but successful 2003–04 campaign which saw Palermo crowned as Serie B champions and promoted to Serie A after 31 years, under head coach Francesco Guidolin, who was hired in January 2004 as replacement for dismissed Silvio Baldini.

The 2004–05 season, the first in Serie A for the Palermo club since 1973, ended with an excellent sixth place, securing qualification for the 2005–06 UEFA Cup for the first time in its history. Luca Toni broke the Palermo Serie A scoring record by notching up 20 league goals. In the following season, despite an unimpressive eighth place in the Serie A table, Palermo reached the last 16 in the UEFA Cup as well as the Coppa Italia semi-finals. The club was however admitted to play UEFA Cup again due to the 2006 Calciopoli scandal, with Palermo players Andrea Barzagli, Cristian Zaccardo, Simone Barone and Fabio Grosso being crowned 2006 World Cup winners. A number of impressive signings were made to establish an ambitious team, and a good beginning in the 2006–07 campaign appeared initially to confirm this. An 11-game winless streak, however, forced Palermo to fall down from third to seventh place, ending the season in fifth place and ensuring another UEFA Cup qualification. The club successively established as a force in the mid-table part of the Serie A league, also winning a Campionato Nazionale Primavera national title in 2009.

The following season started with new manager Walter Zenga, whose appointment from Sicilian arch-rivals Catania was greeted with surprise and dismay from supporters of both parties; Zenga's reign, however, lasted only 13 games, as he was dismissed on 23 November 2009 due to poor performances, ironically after a 1–1 home tie to Sicilian rivals and Zenga's former team, Catania, with former Lazio boss Delio Rossi being appointed at his place. Under the tutelage of Delio Rossi, results dramatically improved, and Palermo established a record of seven consecutive home wins, including wins against Italian giants Milan and Juventus, and emerging as serious contenders for a Champions League spot, which they ultimately lost to Sampdoria by only one point. Such season also launched new emerging stars such as midfielder Javier Pastore and goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu, who went on to become integral part of their respective international teams.

The 2010–11 season started with Delio Rossi still in charge of the club, and also marked Palermo's return into continental football in the form of the UEFA Europa League. Palermo reached their third Coppa Italia finals after defeating Milan 4–3 on aggregate on 10 May 2011, losing 3–1 to Internazionale in the final, in what is considered one of the peak moments of Zamparini's period at the club.

Zamparini's later years and Serie B return (2011–2018)
For the 2011–12 season, Delio Rossi was replaced by former Chievo boss Stefano Pioli, who was, however, sacked before the Serie A kickoff after being eliminated by Swiss minnows FC Thun in the Europa League third preliminary round; new head coach Devis Mangia, with no managerial experience other than at youth team and minor league level; despite that, Mangia turned Palermo fortunes by leading the Rosanero in fifth place thanks to an impressive string of six consecutive home wins, thus deserving a long-term deal at the club. A string of poor results, however, led Palermo to three consecutive defeats, including elimination from the Coppa Italia and a disappointing loss in the Sicilian derby, persuading Zamparini to replace Mangia with the more experienced Bortolo Mutti. Palermo arrived 16th in that season.

For the 2012–13 season, Zamparini came with another staff revolution, appointing Giorgio Perinetti as the new director of football and Giuseppe Sannino as the manager, both coming from Siena. A complete squad restructuring, a total five managerial changes and some staff changes (including a short stint with Pietro Lo Monaco as sports director) did not help, and Palermo ended its season in 18th place, being thus relegated to Serie B after nine consecutive seasons in the top flight.

For the new Serie B campaign, Zamparini appointed former Milan and Italy international star Gennaro Gattuso as the new manager, despite him having little prior managerial experience; he was sacked in September 2013, the 28th sacked manager in 11 years. Fortune was reversed rather rapidly, however, as Palermo regained promotion back to Serie A for the 2014–15 season under the guidance of new head coach Giuseppe Iachini, with the Rosanero completing a record-breaking Serie B season with 86 points, one more than previous record holders Juventus, Chievo and Sassuolo (all of them in the 22-team Serie B format).

With Iachini confirmed in charge, Palermo played a rather successful 2014–15 Serie A season, narrowly missing on a UEFA Europa League spot also thanks to the all-Argentine striking force of Paulo Dybala and Franco Vázquez.

In 2015–16 season, Palermo started their season without Dybala after the youngster moved to Juventus; the Rosanero therefore relied on senior striker Alberto Gilardino to play as a partner of Vázquez. Another long list of managerial changes during the season (seven in total, with Davide Ballardini as the final one) marked a very troublesome season, during which Palermo escaped relegation on the last day of the league with the necessary win over Hellas Verona 3–2, securing 16th place.

For the 2016–17 season, Zamparini re-appointed Rino Foschi as director of football; he however resigned after just a month in charge and was replaced by former Trapani director Daniele Faggiano. Most senior players such as Gilardino, Sorrentino, Vázquez and Maresca were sold and mostly replaced with Alessandro Diamanti plus a number of young and quasi-unknown foreign players. Ballardini, who was originally confirmed as head coach, left his position after a draw at Inter Milan at the second matchday of the season and was replaced with Serie A newbie Roberto De Zerbi who ended his stay after seven league losses in a row, with former club captain Eugenio Corini taking over. More managerial and staff changes followed with little luck and, on 27 February 2017, Zamparini stepped down as chairman of Palermo after 15 years in charge, announcing he had agreed in principle to sell his controlling stake to an unspecified Anglo-American fund, led by Italian-American Paul Baccaglini who was named new club president on 6 March.

Palermo ended the season in 19th place, being relegated to Serie B. The takeover, originally scheduled to be finalized by 30 April 2017 and then delayed by 30 June, eventually collapsed after Zamparini, who in the meantime had appointed Bruno Tedino as new head coach for the 2017–18 Serie B campaign, rejected the final offer he received from Baccaglini. On 4 July 2017, Baccaglini resigned as Palermo chairman, falling back into the hands of Zamparini, after the necessary funds were not in place.

Palermo's campaign in the 2017–18 Serie B aimed for an immediate return to the top flight, with Bruno Tedino as head coach and Fabio Lupo as director of football. Initially, the team's form was good and the Rosanero ended the first half of the season in first place; however, a string of negative results led to the appointment of new manager Roberto Stellone, who was ultimately unable to win promotion, ending the regular season in fourth place and eventually losing the playoff finals to Frosinone.

New ownerships, financial issues and Serie B exclusion (2018–2019)
For the 2018–19 Serie B season, Palermo (with Rino Foschi back for a third time as sporting director) found themselves having to sell a number of players for financial reasons. On 22 November 2018, the club formally confirmed a takeover agreement between Zamparini and an undisclosed investor, later confirmed to be the London based Sport Capital Group Investments Ltd., with English businessman Clive Richardson, head of the new group, being named as new club chairman. Following a January 2019 transfer window with no signings at all and serious tensions within the board, Clive Richardson (chairman) and John Treacy (director) both resigned from the club with immediate effect on 4 February 2019, citing that the full nature of the serious financial situation at the club had not been fully disclosed to them at the time of their purchase. Days later, the club was acquired for a nominal fee by Daniela De Angeli (former managing director from the Zamparini days) and Rino Foschi (appointed as chairman), only for them to sell it again to hotel and tourism company Arkus Network S.r.l. later in May. The new owner, Sporting Network S.r.l., subscribed a €5 million capital increase to the club.

At the end of the 2018–19 Serie B, Palermo finished in third place with 63 points but was demoted by FIGC to last place in Serie B on 13 May due to serious financial irregularities, which meant relegation to Serie C for the following season. The club appealed to FIGC against this ruling and were successful in having the penalty revised; rather than automatic demotion, the club was merely docked 20 points instead, which consequently placed them in a comfortable mid-table eleventh position. However, on 24 June 2019, Palermo incorrectly submitted to FIGC their standard application for the following 2019–20 Serie B season, by failing to provide evidence of a valid insurance policy for the new season. A club trading with no insurance is an extremely serious breach of Italian company law, and as such FIGC had no alternative but to formally exclude the club not only from Serie B, but indeed all professional leagues, on 12 July 2019.

A fresh start, City Football Group ownership (2019–present)
On 23 July 2019, in compliance of Article 52 of N.O.I.F., Mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando confirmed six declarations of interests had been presented for a new phoenix club to be admitted in Serie D, the highest level of non-professional football in Italy, for the 2019–20 season. The next day, Orlando announced his choice of a bid by a company named "Hera Hora srl", jointly owned by entrepreneurs Dario Mirri (a Palermo native, and Renzo Barbera's nephew) and a Sicilian-American, Tony DiPiazza. Palermo completed their Serie D campaign in first place, and was awarded promotion to Serie C by the Italian Football Federation after all the amateur leagues were stopped in March 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. On 16 July 2020, the club changed its name to Palermo Football Club.

Palermo, under the guidance of Silvio Baldini, concluded the 2021–22 Serie C campaign in third place in the Group C, behind Bari and Catanzaro, and then made it to the promotion playoff final against Padova after eliminating Triestina, Virtus Entella and Feralpisalò in the process (during playoffs, Renzo Barbera stadium was always sold out). On 12 June 2022, Palermo were promoted to Serie B after defeating Padova 2–0 on aggregate thus returning to the Italian second division just three years after having been excluded from the league. On 4 July 2022, at the presence of Manchester City F.C. CEO Ferran Soriano, the club was formally announced to have been acquired by City Football Group, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi United Group, with outgoing owner Dario Mirri (who was confirmed as club chairman) keeping a 20% of the quotes.

Under new head coach Eugenio Corini, former Palermo captain in the 2000s, the Rosanero ended their season in ninth place, missing on promotion playoffs in the final game of the season.

Colours and badge

The new official badge as of 2019 is a white eagle's head and three pink/black feathers within a black stylized letter 'P'. The eagle represents the city of Palermo, as it is also part of the city's official coat of arms. This new badge replaced the long-standing badge of the previous formation of the club, an escutcheon with an eagle poised for flight within it, and the previous official club denomination "U.S. Città di Palermo" in capital letters on the top.

From its foundation, Palermo originally played with a red and blue shirt as its official colours, but decided to switch to the unusual current choice of pink and black on 27 February 1907, contemporaneously with the change of denomination to "Palermo FootBall Club".

The colour choice of pink and black was suggested by Count Giuseppe Airoldi, a prominent founding member of the club. In a personal letter Airoldi wrote on 2 February 1905 to English club councillor Joseph Whitaker, he defined pink and black poetically as "colours of the sad and the sweet", a choice he amusingly asserted to be suited for a team characterised by "results as up and down as a Swiss clock", noting also the fact that red and blue were a very commonly used choice of colours around Italy at the time.

The club had to wait for their new jerseys for three months, because no pink cotton flannel material was available in Palermo and the appointed tailoring company could only find suitable material from England and had to import it from there. The vivid new shirts were first worn in a friendly match against Sir Thomas Lipton's crew team; the match ended in a 2–1 win for Palermo. From 1936 to 1940, the team were forced to play in red and yellow jerseys due to an imposition by the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini (red and yellow being the official colours of the municipality of Palermo.) When the club was refounded in 1941 following a merger with Juventina Palermo, they started dressing in light blue shirts on the pitch, but switched back to the very popular pink and black only one year later.

Shirt sponsors and manufacturers

Stadium

Palermo plays its home matches at Stadio Renzo Barbera. The stadium was opened in 1932, during the fascist regime, with the name Stadio Littorio (after the Italian name for the fasces symbol). The inaugural match, won by Palermo 5–1, was played on 24 January 1932 against Atalanta. In 1936, the Littorio was renamed Stadio Michele Marrone after a fascist soldier who died in the Spanish Civil War.

Initially the stadium featured a running track and no spectator space behind the goals, only terraces and a stand along the side. In 1948, following the end of World War II and the fall of the fascist regime, the stadium was renamed Stadio La Favorita, after the Favorita neighbourhood where it was located. It was also restructured to remove the running track and add two curved end sections, increasing its capacity to 30,000. In 1984 it was enlarged to 50,000. The new capacity was reached only twice: for a Serie C1 league match against Sicilian rivals Messina and for a friendly match against Juventus. On the occasion of the 1990 FIFA World Cup, the stadium was renovated, some new seats added, but the overall capacity reduced to 37,619. During the 1989 renovation works, five employees died following the collapse of a section of the stadium. In 2002 the stadium was renamed in honour of Renzo Barbera, legendary Palermo chairman in the 1970s.

In 2007 Palermo chairman and owner Maurizio Zamparini announced plans to move the club to a new state-of-the-art stadium possibly to be located in the ZEN neighbourhood of Palermo not far from the Velodromo Paolo Borsellino, a smaller stadium which had previously hosted some Palermo matches.

Supporters

The majority of Palermo supporters come from the city and its neighbourhood. However, Palermo is also widely popular throughout Western Sicily, as well as among Sicilian immigrants in northern Italy,  For example, a number of Palermo fans living in and around the German city of Solingen have even founded a club named FC Rosaneri in honour of Palermo which, as of 2007, plays in the Kreisliga B league.

Support for Palermo is traditionally closely associated with a strong sense of Sicilian identity; indeed, it is not uncommon to see Sicilian flags waved by fans and ultras during Palermo matches. Palermo fans are also twinned with Lecce ultras. This friendship was strengthened by the acquisition of Fabrizio Miccoli, who is originally from the city of Lecce and a well-known Lecce supporter who went on to become captain of Palermo and also the club's most prolific player, setting records for: most Serie A league goals (74, from 2007 to 2013); most goals in all competitions (81, from 2007 to 2013); and most Serie A league appearances (165, from 2007 to 2013).

Palermo's biggest rivals are fellow islanders Catania. Matches between Palermo and Catania are usually referred to as Sicilian derbies, despite the existence of a third Sicilian team, Messina, who played in Serie A alongside Palermo and Catania in recent years. Rivalry with Messina, although historically older, is generally less intense than that with Catania.

The 2006–07 return match between Palermo and Catania, played on 2 February 2007 at Stadio Angelo Massimino, Catania, is remembered due to the death of policeman Filippo Raciti who was injured during riots between the local police and the Catania supporters.

According to a survey of 2008, the team has about 1.47 million fans domestically, placing it among the top ten best-supported Italian teams. For example, at the Coppa Italia final played in Rome on 29 May 2011 against Inter, which Palermo lost 3–1, it was estimated that there were 25,000 - 35,000 fans from Palermo, easily outnumbering the Nerazzurri fans present.

Players

Current squad

Other players under contract

Out on loan

Former players
In 2020, as part of the celebrations for the club's 120th anniversary, Palermo announced a hall of fame selection, with eleven players and a manager selected from a list of over 100 proposals.

The most voted players were:

  Fabrizio Miccoli; 4183 votes
  Eugenio Corini; 3924 votes
  Javier Pastore; 3835 votes
  Federico Balzaretti; 3738 votes
  Andrea Barzagli; 3495 votes
  Josip Iličić; 2801 votes
  Paulo Dybala; 2798 votes
  Luca Toni; 2700 votes
  Fabio Grosso; 2575 votes
  Francesco Guidolin; 2516 votes
  Amauri; 2292 votes
  Edinson Cavani; 1702 votes
  Stefano Sorrentino; 1583 votes
  Roberto Biffi; 1566 votes
  Lamberto Zauli; 1490 votes

Club officials

Board of directors

 Last updated: 7 August 2022
 Source: Board of directors

Current technical staff

 Last updated: 7 August 2022
 Source: Technical staff

Managers

In 2020, as part of the celebrations for the club's 120th anniversary, Palermo announced a hall of fame selection, asking their supporters to select the best manager in the club's history among a list of successful ones from the past.

The best manager in the club's history was selected to be Francesco Guidolin, who led Palermo to win promotion to Serie A in 2004 after a 31-year absence, and sixth place in the top flight (best result in the club's history) and consequent first ever European qualification the year after.

Other candidates for all-time manager were (in order of votes):
  Delio Rossi
  Giuseppe Iachini
  Ignazio Arcoleo
  Čestmír Vycpálek
  Fernando Veneranda
  Giuseppe Caramanno
  Rosario Pergolizzi
  Corrado Viciani
  Carmelo Di Bella
  Gipo Viani
  Benigno De Grandi

Chairmen history
Over the years Palermo has had various owners and chairmen; here is a chronological list of the known chairmen:

 Edward De Garston (1900–1903)
 Barone Michele Vannucci (1903–1904)
 Cavaliere Ignazio Majo Pagano (1904–1908)
 Barone Roberto Pottino (1908–1915)
 Valentino Colombo (1920–1923)
 Cavaliere Michele Utveggio (1923–1925)
 Valentino Colombo (1925–1926)
 Conte Liotta di Lemos (1928)
 Barone Giovanni Sergio (1928)
 Conte Guido Airoldi (1928–1929)
 Barone Luigi Bordonaro di Gebbiarossa (1929–1931)
 Francesco Paolo Barresi (1931–1933)
 Cavaliere Giovanni Lo Casto Valenti (1933–1934)
 Valentino Colombo (1934–1935)
 Giovanni De Luca (1935)
 Luigi Majo Pagano (1935–1936)
 Valentino Colombo (1936–1937)
 Paolo Di Pietra (1937–1938)
 Salvatore Barbaro (1938–1940)
 Duilio Lanni (1941–1942)
 Giuseppe Agnello (1942–1947)
 Stefano La Motta (1947–1948)
 Giuseppe Guazzardella (1948–1951)
 Raimondo Lanza di Trabia (1951–1952)
 Barone Carlo La Lomia (1952–1953)
 Mario Fasino (1953–1954)
 Ernesto Pivetti (1954–1955)
 Giuseppe Trapani (1955)
 Conte Arturo Cassina (1955–1956)
 Giuseppe Seminara (1956–1957)
 Casimiro Vizzini (1957–1963)
 Conte Guglielmo Pinzero (1963–1964)
 Ernesto Di Fresco,  Luigi Barbaccia,  Franz Gorgone (1964)
 Casimiro Vizzini (1964)
 Conte Guglielmo Pinzero (1964)
 Totò Vilardo (1964–1965)
 Franco Spagnolo (1965)
 Franz Gorgone (1965)
 Luigi Gioia (1965)
 Giuseppe Pergolizzi (1967–1970)
 Renzo Barbera (1970–1980)
 Gaspare Gambino (1980–1982)
 Roberto Parisi (1982–1985)
 Salvatore Matta (1985–1986)
 Salvino Lagumina (1987–1989)
 Giovanni Ferrara (1989–1993)
 Liborio Polizzi (1993–1995)
 Giovanni Ferrara (1995–2000)
 Sergio D'Antoni (2000–2002)
 Maurizio Zamparini (2002–2017)
 Paul Baccaglini (2017)
 Giovanni Giammarva (2017-2018)
 Clive Richardson (2018-2019)
 Rino Foschi (2019)
 Alessandro Albanese (2019)
 Dario Mirri (2019–)

Honours
Serie B
Champions (5):  1931–32,   1947–48, 1967–68,  2003–04, 2013–14
Serie C1
Champions (4):  1941–42,   1945–46, 1992–93,  2000–01
Serie C2
Champions (1): 1987–88
Serie D
Champions (1): 2019–20
Prima Divisione
Champions (1): 1929–30
Coppa Italia Serie C
Winners (1): 1992–93

Other Titles
Coppa Federale Siciliana
Winners (1): 1920
Whitaker Challenge Cup
Winners (1): 1908
Lipton Challenge Cup
Winners (5): 1910, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915
Torneo di Tunisi
Winners (1): 1923
Campionato Primavera:
Winners (1): 2008–09
Campionato Nazionale Dante Berretti:
Winners (1): 2000–01
Coppa Allievi Professionisti:
Winners (1): 1997–98
Campionato Giovanissimi Regionali:
Winners (2): 2011–12, 2012–13

Records

Most appearances in all competitions – 372, Roberto Biffi (1988–1999)
Most European appearances – 15, Andrea Barzagli, Franco Brienza and Mattia Cassani
Most Serie A league appearances – 165, Fabrizio Miccoli (2007–2013)
Most league goals – 74, Fabrizio Miccoli (2007–2013)
Most Serie A league goals – 74, Fabrizio Miccoli (2007–2013)
Most Coppa Italia cup goals – 7, Massimo De Stefanis (1979–1984)
Most Europa League/UEFA Cup goals – 4, Franco Brienza (2000–2013), Abel Hernández (2009–2014)
Most goals in all competitions – 81, Fabrizio Miccoli (2007–2013)
Most goals in a season – 30, Luca Toni (2003–2004)
Current player with most appearances – 94, Ivan Marconi (as of 30 June 2023)
Biggest win and biggest home win in Serie A – 8–0 (v. Pro Patria, 5 November 1950)
Biggest away win – 8–1 (v. Potenza, 1 March 1942)
Biggest defeat and biggest away defeat – 0–9 (v. Milan, 18 February 1951)
Biggest home defeat – 0–7 (v. Udinese, 27 February 2011)
Highest number of points in Serie A league – 65 pt. (2009–10) 5th position
Best series without home defeats – 26 (Palermo–Lecce 5–2, 15 March 2009 – Palermo–Cagliari 0–0, 29 August 2010)
Greatest series of consecutive victories in Serie A league – 5 (2006–07)

Competitions

League

National cups

International competitions

In Europe

UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League

References

Bibliography

External links

Football clubs in Italy
Football clubs in Sicily
Association football clubs established in 1900
Serie B clubs
Serie C clubs
Serie D clubs
1900 establishments in Italy
1927 establishments in Italy
1940 establishments in Italy
1987 establishments in Italy
2019 establishments in Italy
Phoenix clubs (association football)
Coppa Italia Serie C winning clubs

Palermo FC


Lourens Jacobus (Louw) Wepener was born on 21 July 1812. He was the son of a German immigrant – Frederick Jacobus Wepener – and a Cape Colony woman – Johanna Maria Erasmus. Wepener was born in Graaf-Reinet and lived with his uncle – Lourens. He was christened by Reverend Andrew Murray of the Dutch Reformed Church. Wepener was first married to Hester Susanna Nel and then later to Hilletje Maria Levina Van Aardt. He had nine children with his second wife.

Military career
Wepener participated in some Frontier Wars (1834–1853) as Acting Field Cornet. He moved to the farm De Nek in Aliwal North in 1850 where he took part in the Eighth Frontier War (1850–1853) (Xhosa wars) and was promoted to Commandant due to his outstanding leadership.

He later migrated to the Orange Free State where he bought two farms in Bethulie district – Constantia and Moordernaarspoort. When he arrived in Orange Free State, Wepener was appointed Acting Commandant. He took part in the Free State–Basotho Wars – which were a series of wars fought between Moshoeshoe I and the Orange Free State.

The three are the Senekal War (1858), Seqiti War which included two conflicts in 1856 to 1866 and 1867 to 1868. The wars resulted in the Orange Free State acquiring large tracts of land from Basotho. The Free State's forces were led by Commandant-General Johan Fick and Commandant Louw Wepener.

The first attack on Thaba Bosiu failed on 8 August 1865, the Boers tried again on 15 August.
As he ascended Thaba Bosiu, Wepener and his agterryer had made some progress up the Khubelu pass but as soon as Basotho soldiers spotted them, Wepener was shot and he died on the spot. Basotho charged and about 11 Boers were killed and about 30 were injured.

Death
The loss of Wepener was a huge loss in the Free State as he was regarded as a remarkable and brave leader. Two of his entrusted men – Carl Mathey and Chris du Randt, went up at night to go and look for his body. They dragged it into a shallow trench next to Adam Raubenheimer, another fallen Boer. It was reported that Moshoeshoe ordered his warriors to cut out Wepener's heart out and eat it. This is due to Moshoeshoe I being impressed with the bravery of Wepener and thus he believed that if each of his warriors ate a piece of his heart, they would gain his bravery. He was first buried at Thaba Bosiu by Dr Prosper Lautre (1818–1893) of the Paris Evangelical Mission Society.

Eleven months after the death of Wepener, his son – Dick Wepener – and four of his friends went to Thaba Bosiu to collect his father's remains for a proper burial. King Moshoeshoe I's son – Tladi – took Dick to where his father was buried. This is when Tladi told Dick that his father's heart had been eaten by warriors. His body was taken to be buried at the family farm in Constantia. The pass at Thaba Bosiu known as Khubelu pass where Wepener was killed is also known as the Wepener's pass to commemorate his death.

Honours

A town founded in 1867 was named after Wepener. This town is found in the Free State on the banks of Jammersbergspuit, a tributary of the Caledon River.
There is also a monument in his honour at the front of the town hall in Wepener.
On the N6 to Aliwal North, there is a little monument in honour of Wepener.
Two military awards were named after him – Louw Wepener decoration (1952 – 1975) and the Louw Wepener medal (1967–1975), which were issued by the South African Defence Force to its members for courageous or heroic deeds in saving lives.

References

External links
 https://web.archive.org/web/20141011020928/http://www.afrikanergeskiedenis.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Louw-Wepener.pdf
 http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/comdt-louw-wepener-53-killed-combat-during-attack-moshesh-thaba-bosigo-free-state
 http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol122as.html

1865 deaths
Afrikaner people
South African military personnel
19th-century African people
Military personnel killed in action
1812 births

Louw Wepener


Otter Tail Power Co. v. United States, 410 U.S. 366 (1973), is a United States Supreme Court decision often cited as the first case in which the Court held violative of the antitrust laws a single firm's refusal to deal with other firms that denied them access to a facility essential to engaging in business (a so-called essential facility).

Background

Facts

Otter Tail Power Company (Otter Tail) is an investor-owned electric power utility with headquarters at Fergus Falls, Minnesota. In addition to energy generated within its own plants, it purchased power from other sources. One of these sources was the United States Bureau of Reclamation's Red Wing Dam power generation facility and other Bureau sites. Power purchased from government sources was transmitted ("wheeled") over high-voltage power transmission lines that Otter Tail owns. Most of the wheeled power was to serve the municipal utilities and electric cooperatives within the company's territory across northwestern Minnesota, eastern North Dakota, and northeastern South Dakota. A portion of this energy was also used to meet the company's retail customer needs.

The case involved two principal types of conduct, both of which resulted from Otter Tail's desire to prevent small towns in which it sold power to customers from establishing municipal power systems of their own instead of the residents continuing to be retail customers of Otter Tail. One type of conduct was bringing allegedly frivolous and vexatious suits to prevent the towns from being able to sell municipal bonds to finance the establishment of their municipal power systems. The more important conduct, leading to the essential facilities legal precedent, was Otter Tail's refusal to wheel and sell power to the proposed new local power systems that would replace Otter Tail as power supplier in their towns.

The United States sued Otter Tail for monopolizing the retail distribution and sale of power to towns in its operating area.

District court opinion

The district court (Devitt, J.) ruled for the Government. It acknowledged:

It is not contended that defendant acted illegally or improperly in achieving this claimed monopoly position but rather in its actions seeking to preserve this position. Specifically, it is urged that Otter Tail's refusal to sell or wheel power to towns desiring to establish municipal systems, and its actions participating in local municipal power political campaigns, and sponsoring, encouraging, and financially supporting court litigation are all intended to impede and frustrate attempts to establish independent municipal electric systems.

Otter Tail does not deny its refusal to sell or wheel power to municipalities which it formerly served at retail but argues that to supply power to these municipalities would aid in its own demise. It admits its participation in local municipal political campaigns and in litigation surrounding attempts to establish municipal systems but contends this is proper and legal conduct. Such actions were taken, defendant argues, to preserve the electric power free enterprise system for the benefit of its customers, shareholders and employees.

The court found that Otter Tail had a monopoly in the sale of electric power at retail in the area in which it operated—more than 75% of the relevant market. Many towns cannot obtain power from the Bureau because Otter Tail owns the only transmission lines and refuses to deal with them. It is not economically feasible or practical for a municipality to construct its own transmission lines.

The court concluded "that Otter Tail has a strategic dominance in the transmission of power in most of its service area. The court found that Otter Tail used its refusal to deal and its dominance to prevent towns such as Elbow Lake, Minnesota, from obtaining power to supply the town's municipal power system.

The court ruled that this and similar conduct toward other towns was monopolization in violation of section 2 of the Sherman Act:

Here the defendant does not dispute that its purpose in refusing to deal with municipalities desiring to establish municipally owned systems is to protect itself in the position it now enjoys in the area. Such is a monopoly position, and the law prohibits conduct such as this when such is intended to preserve the monopoly.

. . . Here Otter Tail refuses to sell power to municipalities which would thereby take retail power business from defendant and refuses to wheel power for others willing to sell to these municipalities. Because of its dominant position Otter Tail is able to deprive towns of the benefits of competition which would result from municipally owned facilities.

Pertinent to an examination of the law is a reference to cases expressive of the "bottleneck theory" of antitrust law. This theory reflects in essence that it is an illegal restraint of trade for a party to foreclose others from the use of a scarce facility.

The court then turned to Otter Tail's litigation, finding "Otter Tail either instituted or sponsored and financially supported court litigation which had the effect of frustrating the sale of revenue bonds to finance the municipal systems." The effect was "halting, or appreciably slowing, efforts for municipal ownership" and "the large financial burden imposed on the towns' limited treasury dampened local enthusiasm for public ownership." The court analogized this to litigation under spurious patents and concluded that it was part of a monopolistic scheme.

The court therefore enjoined Otter Tail's monopolistic conduct. Its judgment prohibited Otter Tail from: refusing to sell electric power at wholesale to existing or proposed municipal electric power systems in the areas serviced by Otter Tail, refusing to wheel electric power over the lines from the electric power suppliers to existing or proposed municipal systems in the area, entering into or enforcing any contract which prohibits use of Otter Tail's lines to wheel electric power to municipal electric power systems, or from entering into or enforcing any contract which limits the customers to whom and areas in which Otter Tail or any other electric power company may sell electric power. The district court also enjoined Otter Tail from instituting, supporting, or engaging in litigation, directly or indirectly, against municipalities and their officials who have voted to establish municipal electric power systems for the purpose of delaying, preventing, or interfering with the establishment of a municipal electric power system.

Supreme Court ruling

The Supreme Court affirmed (4-3) the essential facility part of the case but remanded for additional findings on the litigation part. Justice William O. Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Justices William J. Brennan, Byron White, and Thurgood Marshall joined. Justice Potter Stewart filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justice William Rehnquist joined.

Majority opinion

The Court explained that proposed municipal systems face "great obstacles." They must purchase the electric power at wholesale. To do so, they must have access to existing transmission lines. The only ones available belong to Otter Tail. While the Bureau of Reclamation has high-voltage bulk-power supply lines in the area, it does not operate a network for local power delivery, but relies on wheeling contracts with Otter Tail and other utilities to deliver power to its wholesale customers.

When Otter Tail's franchise in several towns expired, the citizens voted to establish their own municipal distribution systems. Otter Tail refused to sell the new systems energy at wholesale and refused to agree to wheel power from other suppliers of wholesale energy to these towns.

The Court said: "The record makes abundantly clear that Otter Tail used its monopoly power in the towns in its service area to foreclose competition or gain a competitive advantage, or to destroy a competitor, all in violation of the antitrust laws." Otter Tail used its "dominance to foreclose potential entrants into the retail area from obtaining electric power from outside sources of supply."

Otter Tail argued that, "without the weapons which it used, more and more municipalities will turn to public power and Otter Tail will go downhill." The Court responded that Otter Tail should "protect itself against loss by operating with superior service, lower costs, and improved efficiency."

While the Court affirmed the part of the judgment enjoining the monopolistic practices relating to denial of access to electric power, it did not affirm the injunction against litigation. After the district court's judgment was entered, the Supreme Court decided California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unlimited, in which it held that "the right to petition extends to all departments of the Government [and] [t]he right of access to the courts is indeed but one aspect of the right of petition" that the First Amendment protects. The Court also held in that case, however, that "where the purpose to suppress competition is evidenced by repetitive lawsuits carrying the hallmark of insubstantial claims," the conduct "is within the 'mere sham' exception" to that protection and is thus subject to antitrust prohibitions. The Court therefore vacated this part of the judgment "and remand[ed] for consideration in light of our intervening decision in California Motor Transport Co."

Dissent/concurrence

The dissent agreed with the part of the Court's opinion that vacated and remanded for consideration of Otter Tail's litigation activities in light of the Court's decision in California Motor Transport Co, but disagreed with the remainder dealing with monopolistic denial of access to electric power.

In the dissenting justices' view, "As a retailer of power, Otter Tail asserted a legitimate business interest in keeping its lines free for its own power sales and in refusing to lend a hand in its own demise by wheeling cheaper power from the Bureau of Reclamation to municipal consumers which might otherwise purchase power at retail from Otter Tail itself." Furthermore, "Otter Tail's refusal to wheel or wholesale power was conduct exempt from the antitrust laws and . . . the District Court's decree improperly preempted the jurisdiction of the Federal Power Commission."

Subsequent developments

Remand

In accordance with the Supreme Court's order for a remand as to the litigation prong of the case, in United States v. Otter Tail Power Co., the district court (Devitt, J.) reconsidered that aspect of the case. After hearing arguments but without taking additional evidence, the court found:
[T]he repetitive use of litigation by Otter Tail was timed and designed principally to prevent the establishment of municipal electric systems and thereby to preserve defendant's monopoly. I find the litigation comes within the sham exception to the Noerr doctrine as defined by the Supreme Court in California Transport, and reaffirm the Findings and Conclusions previously entered.

Otter Tail appealed this ruling, but the Supreme Court affirmed it without opinion.

Aspen case

In Aspen Skiing Co. v. Aspen Highlands Skiing Corp., the defendant controlled three of the four ski mountains in Aspen, Colorado. The defendant and plaintiff (owner of the fourth ski mountain) had long engaged in a popular joint-venture arrangement for ski lift tickets. The defendant suddenly terminated the joint venture without a credible business justification. The Supreme Court affirmed a judgment for the plaintiff without addressing the essential facilities doctrine. Instead, the Court spoke of the defendant's termination of a successful program that was beneficial to consumers, failure to establish a plausible business justification, and willingness to sacrifice short-term profits in order to injure competition down the road.

Hecht case

In Hecht v. Pro-Football, Inc. a group of sports promoters (Hecht) were refused an American Football League (AFL) franchise in Washington, D.C. They sued Pro-Football (PF), owner of the Washington Redskins, a National Football League team operating in D.C., and the D.C. Armory Board, which operated the only stadium in D.C. The Redskins had a 30–year contract with the Armory Board prohibiting it from leasing to any other professional football team. The AFL would not consider the Hecht franchise application until Hecht had a stadium lease. PF would not negotiate a waiver of its exclusive stadium rights until Hecht had a franchise. The D.C. Circuit held that the district court should have instructed the jury concerning the essential facility doctrine, citing Otter Tail as having reaffirmed its announcement in Terminal Railroad.

The court held that PF could not defend by showing that its restrictive contract was reasonable, because:
The garden-variety restrictive covenant does not violate section 1 unless it unreasonably restrains trade; when the restrictive covenant covers an essential facility, however, all possible competition is by definition excluded and the restraint is thus unreasonable per se—provided, of course, that the facility can be shared practically.

MCI case

In MCI Communications Corp. v. AT&T Co., the Seventh Circuit stated a four–part test that has since been widely cited as authoritative for the essential facilities doctrine:
 the accused monopolist controls access to an essential facility,
 the facility cannot reasonably be duplicated by the competitor,
 the accused monopolist denies access to the competitor, and
 it was feasible for the accused monopolist to grant access to the competitor.

Some courts have stated a fifth factor perhaps implicit in MCI: that the defendant monopolist lacked a valid business justification for its refusal to deal.

Trinko

In Verizon Communications Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko, LLP, the Supreme Court in dicta spoke harshly against the essential facilities doctrine. In Trinko, a customer of a telephone company monopolist brought a treble-damage class action challenging discrimination against a competitor that allegedly caused the class to suffer overpriced and inadequate phone service. The Court held that the only remedies were under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and dismissed the antitrust claims. It then added that it would not have ruled differently even if it accepted the essential facilities doctrine:

This conclusion would be unchanged even if we considered to be established law the "essential facilities" doctrine crafted by some lower courts, under which the Court of Appeals
concluded [Trinko] 's allegations might state a claim. We have never recognized such a doctrine, and we find no need either to recognize it or to repudiate it here. It suffices for present purposes to note that the indispensable requirement for invoking the doctrine is the unavailability of access to the "essential facilities"; where access exists, the doctrine serves no purpose. . . . To the extent respondent's "essential facilities" argument is distinct from its general § 2 argument, we reject it.

Commentary

Alon Kapen addresses two lines of cases in which court have ordered monopolists to stop refusing to deal with competitors. "First, firms  may not refuse to deal where they seek to create or maintain a monopoly. Second, a business or group of businesses controlling an  "essential facility" has a duty to provide reasonable access to competitors." He sees the Otter Tail case as using both theories, the first based on intent and the second based on effects.

Michael Boudin in contrast sees Otter Tail as emphasizing the defendant's "intent to destroy competition" and "malign intent."

Daniel Troy states that Otter Tail "is commonly cited to justify a per se rule in essential facility cases," but a "close examination" belies that claim. While its fact pattern may fit the essential facilities doctrine, "the Court's reasoning makes clear that it did not treat Otter Tail differently from any other monopolist using its monopoly power to suppress competition in a downstream market." Rather, he insists, "the Court employed a traditional section 2 intent-focused monopolization analysis."

Phillip Areeda criticized the essential facilities doctrine harshly in a much cited article initially delivered as an address at a 1989 program of the ABA Antitrust Section—"The Cutting Edge of Antitrust: Exclusionary Practices. He summarized his arguments with six points:
 There is no general duty to share.
 A single firm's facility, as distinct from that of a combination, is "essential" only when it is both critical to the plaintiff's competitive vitality and the plaintiff is essential for competition in the marketplace.
 No one should be forced to deal unless doing so is likely substantially to improve competition in the marketplace by reducing price or by increasing output or innovation.
 Even when all these conditions are satisfied, denial of access is never per se unlawful; legitimate business purpose always saves the defendant.
 The defendant's intention is seldom illuminating, because every firm that denies its facilities to rivals does so to limit competition with itself and increase its profits.
 No court should impose a duty to deal that it cannot explain or adequately and reasonably supervise.

James Ratner recognizes that there are substantial problems in administering the essential facilities doctrine, but he argues that addressing denials of access to essential facilities is socially necessary:
 If a facility is essential, the market in which it produces has become  like a dead mouse on the kitchen floor. No one wants to pick up the  mouse, and doing so may be repulsive to some, but it is probably best  not to leave it there. Finding a facility to be essential means that the  competitive process is an unreliable mechanism for correcting significant short-run welfare losses. The market requires some form of intervention, or those losses will persist.

Ratner concedes that vertical behavior such as refusals to allow access to essential facilities "fall under criticism that the behavior does not create new power and may be efficient." Critics then argue that the real economic problem is caused by the monopoly, not by the behavior. That criticism, Ratner argues, does not adequately  address the problem of whether to prohibit the activities because they  are socially harmful even without increasing market power. If nothing else, "the market power possessed by essential facilities suggests that denial of access frequently will create economically harmful output reduction without increasing or maintaining market power." Therefore, the essential facilities doctrine provides "the only meaningful remedy for these harmful denials" and unfortunately that "requires someone, usually a poorly equipped federal court," to impose judicial regulation. "While such judicial regulation has unavoidable drawbacks," nonetheless, "ignoring  the essential facility problem is to ignore one of the basic harms [that the antitrust]  laws seek to correct."

Glen Robinson argues that "the essential facilities doctrine provides the proper framework for analyzing both regulatory and antitrust requirements for forced dealing or sharing among rivals." In deciding what is an essential facility, Robinson deprecates the distinction between tangible assets (such as the transmission lines in Otter Tail) and intellectual property, based on the claim that it "is critical for encouraging
owners to invest in innovation." He points out:
An incentives problem is created any time one firm is permitted to free-ride on a competitor's investments, whether those investments are represented by tangible assets or intellectual property. Forced sharing of an unpatented or uncopyrighted gizmo undermines investment incentives to the same degree as forced sharing of a patented or copyrighted widget. In the former case, the owner's common law property right in the unpatented widget is entitled to the same legal protection as the property right in the patented gizmo for basically the same reason-to protect settled expectations and the incentive to create wealth. Innovation is merely one form of investment in wealth-creating activity. Regardless of the form of the investment, the ultimate task is to accommodate both the general laws of property and the special laws of antitrust.

Instead, he argues, the proper basis for any distinction is "to examine the underlying interest at stake." Thus, "courts should be skeptical about ordering a firm to share new technologies promising only uncertain returns to the investing firm" because a "firm's investment incentives are especially sensitive to the firm's ability to capture all of the upside return, particularly if it cannot share the downside loss." In such circumstances, "a court should force sharing of essential information only if there is no alternative method of accomplishing the purpose of establishing workable competition."

Robinson disagrees with Judge Posner's view that "forced sharing of facilities deemed to be naturally monopolistic can [never] serve a legitimate competitive purpose." Robinson argues that "in some cases the essential facilities doctrine is properly invoked to prevent a monopolist from leveraging its power from one market into another by withholding access to an input that is needed in the second market." Also, "forced sharing might be the only vehicle for testing [false claims that] a market is naturally monopolistic," as in the case of the long-distance telecommunications market. Robinson concludes that a well-defined essential facilities doctrine is preferable to "the amorphous and untheorized 'it-all-depends' principle followed in Aspen Skiing."

See also
 Essential facilities doctrine

References

External links

United States antitrust case law
United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court
1973 in United States case law

Otter Tail Power Co. v. United States


The blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, which can be easily identified by the prominent black tips on its fins (especially on the first dorsal fin and its caudal fin). Among the most abundant sharks inhabiting the tropical coral reefs of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, this species prefers shallow, inshore waters. Its exposed first dorsal fin is a common sight in the region. The blacktip reef shark is usually found over reef ledges and sandy flats, though it has also been known to enter brackish and freshwater environments. It typically attains a length of . Like other sharks, the females are larger than the males.

The blacktip reef shark has extremely small home ranges and exhibits strong site fidelity, remaining within the same local area for up to several years at a time. It is an active predator of small bony fish, cephalopods, and crustaceans, and has also been known to feed on sea snakes and seabirds. Accounts of the blacktip reef shark's life history have been variable and sometimes contradictory, in part reflecting geographical differences within the species. Like other members of its family, this shark is viviparous, with females giving birth to two to five young on a biennial, annual, or possibly biannual cycle. Reports of the gestation period range from 7–9, through 10–11, to possibly 16 months. Mating is preceded by the male following closely behind the female, likely attracted by her chemical signals. Newborn sharks are found further inshore and in shallower water than adults, frequently roaming in large groups over areas flooded by high tide.

Timid and skittish, the blacktip reef shark is difficult to approach and seldom poses a danger to humans unless roused by food. However, people wading through shallow water are at risk of having their legs mistakenly bitten. This shark is used for its meat, fins, and liver oil, but is not considered to be a commercially significant species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed the blacktip reef shark as Vulnerable. Although the species as a whole remains widespread and relatively common, overfishing of this slow-reproducing shark has led to its decline at a number of locales.

Taxonomy

French naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard originally described the blacktip reef shark during the 1817–1820 exploratory voyage of the corvette Uranie. In 1824, their account was published as part of Voyage autour du monde...sur les corvettes de S.M. l'Uranie et la Physicienne, Louis de Freycinet's 13-volume report on the voyage. The type specimen was a -long juvenile male caught off the island of Waigeo, west of New Guinea. Quoy and Gaimard chose the name Carcharias melanopterus, from the Greek melas meaning "black" and pteron meaning "fin" or "wing", in reference to this shark's prominent fin markings.

Subsequent authors moved the blacktip reef shark to the genus Carcharhinus; in 1965 the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature designated it as the type species for the genus. In some earlier literature, the scientific name of this shark was mistakenly given as C. spallanzani, now recognized as a synonym of the spottail shark (C. sorrah). Other common names for this species include blackfin reef shark, black-finned shark, blacktip shark, reef blacktip shark, and guliman.

Phylogeny
Like most other members of its genus, the phylogenetic position of the blacktip reef shark remains indeterminate. Based on morphology, Jack Garrick proposed in 1982 that the closest relative of the blacktip reef shark was the nervous shark (C. cautus). Leonard Compagno's 1988 morphological analysis suggested affinity not only between this species and the nervous shark, but also four other species, and could not resolve their relationships further. A 1998 allozyme analysis by Gavin Naylor again yielded ambiguous results, finding that the blacktip reef shark forms a polytomy (irresolvable group) with 10 other Carcharhinus species.

Distribution and habitat

The blacktip reef shark is found throughout nearshore waters of the tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific. In the Indian Ocean, it occurs from South Africa to the Red Sea, including Madagascar, Mauritius, and the Seychelles, and from there eastward along the coast of the Indian Subcontinent to Southeast Asia, including Sri Lanka, the Andaman Islands, and the Maldives. In the Pacific Ocean, it is found from southern China and the Philippines to Indonesia, northern Australia and New Caledonia, and also inhabits numerous oceanic islands, including the Marshall, Gilbert, Society, and Hawaiian Islands and Tuamotu. Contrary to what most sources state, there is a report suggesting that the specimens of this species from Japanese waters might be from Taiwan, however a number of sightings and captures of this species have been reported from the inshore waters of Ishigaki Island of Okinawa Prefecture in southern Japan. A Lessepsian migrant, this shark has colonized the eastern Mediterranean Sea by way of the Suez Canal.

Although it has been reported from a depth of , the blacktip reef shark is usually found in water only a few meters deep, and can often be seen swimming close to shore with its dorsal fin exposed. Younger sharks prefer shallow, sandy flats, while older sharks are most common around reef ledges and can also be found near reef drop-offs. This species has also been reported from brackish estuaries and lakes in Madagascar, and freshwater environments in Malaysia, though it is not able to tolerate low salinity to the same degree as the bull shark (C. leucas). At Aldabra in the Indian Ocean, blacktip reef sharks congregate in the channels between reef flats during low tide and travel to the mangroves when the water rises. There is equivocal evidence that sharks from the northern and southern extremes of its distribution are migratory.

Description
A robustly built species with a streamlined "typical shark" form, the blacktip reef shark has a short, wide, rounded snout and moderately large, oval eyes. Each nostril has a flap of skin in front that is expanded into a nipple-shaped lobe. Not counting small symphysial (central) teeth, the tooth rows number 11–13 (usually 12) on either side of the upper jaw and 10–12 (usually 11) on either side of the lower jaw. The upper teeth are upright to angled and narrowly triangular in shape, bearing serrations that are more coarse on the bases; the lower teeth are similar, but more finely serrated. The teeth of adult males are more abruptly curved than those of females.

The pectoral fins are large and narrowly falcate (sickle-shaped), tapering to points. The sizable first dorsal fin is high with a curving "S"-shaped rear margin, and originates over the free rear tips of the pectoral fins. The second dorsal fin is relatively large with a short rear margin, and is placed opposite the anal fin. There is no ridge between the dorsal fins. This shark is a pale grayish-brown above and white below, with an obvious white band on the sides extending forward from above the anal fin. All the fins have black tips highlighted by lighter-colored borders, which are especially striking on the first dorsal fin and lower caudal fin lobe. Most blacktip reef sharks are no more than  long, though rarely individuals may reach  or possibly . The maximum weight on record with the International Game Fish Association is .

Biology and ecology

Along with the grey reef shark (C. amblyrhinchos) and the whitetip reef shark (Triaenodon obesus), the blacktip reef shark is one of the three most common sharks inhabiting coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific. This species predominates in shallow habitats, while the other two are mostly found deeper. Fast-swimming and active, the blacktip reef shark may be encountered alone or in small groups; large "social" aggregations have also been observed. For the most part, juvenile and adult sharks are not segregated by sex, save for the movements of pregnant females to give birth. Individuals exhibit strong fidelity to particular areas, where they may remain for several years.

A tracking study off Palmyra Atoll in the central Pacific has found the blacktip reef shark has a home range of around , among the smallest of any shark species. The size and location of the range does not change with time of day. Within this range, 3–17% of the area constitute favored hunting patches that are disproportionately occupied by the resident shark. The sharks spend most of their time swimming back and forth along reef ledges, making occasional short forays onto sandy flats. Their average swimming speed decreases when the tide rises at night, possibly because the influx of cooler water reduces their metabolism, or the accompanying movement of prey fishes makes foraging easier. Blacktip reef sharks at Aldabra tend to be more mobile than those at Palmyra, with recorded individual movements of up to  over 7 hours.

Blacktip reef sharks, particularly small individuals, fall prey to larger fishes, including groupers, grey reef sharks, tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier), and members of their own species. At Palmyra Atoll, adults avoid patrolling tiger sharks by staying out of the central, deeper lagoon. Their known parasites include the tapeworms Anthobothrium lesteri, Nybelinia queenslandensis, Otobothrium alexanderi, and Platybothrium jondoeorum, a myxosporidian in the genus Unicapsula, and the monogenean Dermophthirius melanopteri. One of the few documented examples of infectious disease in a shark was a fatal case of hemorrhagic septicemia in a blacktip reef shark, caused by the bacterium Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida.

Feeding

As often the most abundant apex predator within its ecosystem, the blacktip reef shark plays a major role in structuring inshore ecological communities. Its diet is composed primarily of small teleost fishes, including mullet, groupers, grunters, jacks, mojarras, wrasses, surgeonfish, and smelt-whitings. Groups of blacktip reef sharks in the Indian Ocean have been observed herding schools of mullet against the shore for easier feeding. Squid, octopus, cuttlefish, shrimp, and mantis shrimp are also taken, as well as carrion and smaller sharks and rays, though this is rare. Off northern Australia, this species is known to consume sea snakes, including Acrochordus granulatus, Hydrelaps darwiniensis, Hydrophis spp. and Lapemis hardwickii. Sharks off Palmyra Atoll have been documented preying on seabird chicks that have fallen out of their nests into the water. Miscellaneous items that have been found inside the stomachs of this species include algae, turtle grass, coral, hydrozoa, bryozoa, rats, and stones.

Researchers working at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands have found the blacktip reef shark can be readily attracted by splashing or striking metal tools against hard objects underwater, as well as by the scent of both healthy and injured fish. As with most sharks, the blacktip reef shark does not have any cone cells in its retina, limiting its ability to discriminate colors and fine details. Instead, its vision is adapted for sensitivity to movement or contrast under low light conditions, which is further enhanced by the presence of a reflective tapetum lucidum. Experiments have shown that this shark is capable of detecting small objects up to  away, but is unable to clearly discern the shape of the object. Electroreception is another means by which this shark can locate prey; its ampullae of Lorenzini have a sensitivity of approximately 4 nV/cm and an effective range of . Similar to the grey reef shark, this species becomes more excited and "confident" in the presence of other individuals of its species, and in extreme situations can be roused into a feeding frenzy. Feeding activity may be greater at night than during the day.

Life history

Like the other members of its family, the blacktip reef shark is viviparous, though the details of its life history vary across its range. Its reproductive cycle is annual off northern Australia, with mating taking place from January to February, as well as off Moorea in French Polynesia, where mating occurs from November to March. The cycle is biennial off Aldabra, where intense competition within and between species for food may constrain females to only bearing young every other year. Earlier accounts from the Indian Ocean by Johnson (1978), Madagascar by Fourmanoir (1961), and the Red Sea by Gohar and Mazhar (1964), indicated a biannual cycle in these regions with two breeding seasons per year from June to July and December to January. If accurate, the shorter reproductive cycles of these subpopulations may be a consequence of warmer water.

When receptive to mating, a female blacktip reef shark swims slowly in a sinusoidal pattern near the bottom with her head pointed down; observations in the wild suggest female sharks release chemical signals that allow males to track them. Once the male finds her, he closes to around  and follows her with his snout oriented towards her vent. A courting male may also bite the female behind her gills or on her pectoral fins; these mating wounds heal completely after 4–6 weeks. After a period of synchronous swimming, the male pushes the female on her side and positions her so her head is against the bottom and her tail is raised. Once the female is in position, the male inserts one of his claspers into her cloaca. Copulation lasts for several minutes, after which the sharks separate and resume their regular behavior. Off Moorea, individual older females mate and give birth at a consistent time every year, often to within a week's precision, whereas younger females exhibit more variability in their timing. Younger females are also more likely to fail to become pregnant after mating.

The gestation period has been reported as 10–11 months long in the Indian Ocean and Pacific islands, and 7–9 months long off northern Australia. Earlier authors, such as Melouk (1957), have estimated a gestation period as long as 16 months, though the validity of this figure has subsequently been challenged. The female has a single functional ovary (on the right) and two functional uteruses, divided into separate compartments for each embryo. Newly ovulated egg cases measure  by ; after hatching the embryos are sustained by a yolk sac during the first stage of development. After two months, the embryo measures  long and has well-developed external gills. After four months, the yolk sac has begun to be converted into a placental connection that attaches to the uterine wall; at this time, the embryo's dark fin markings develop. By five months, the embryo measures  and has resorbed its external gills; the placenta is fully formed, though some yolk remains until seven months into gestation.

Parturition occurs from September to November, with females making use of shallow nursery areas interior of the reef. Newborn pups measure  long in the Indian Ocean and off northern Australia, while free-swimming pups as small as  long have been observed in the Pacific islands. The litter size is 2–5 (typically 4), and is not correlated with female size. Young blacktip reef sharks commonly form large groups in water barely deep enough to cover their bodies, over sand flats or in mangrove swamps close to shore. During high tide, they also move onto flooded coral platforms or seaweed beds. Growth is initially rapid; one documented captive shark grew an average of  per year in its first two years of life. The growth rate slows to around  per year in juveniles and adults. Males and females mature sexually at lengths of  and  respectively off northern Australia, and  and , respectively, off Aldabra. Males mature at  long off Palmyra Atoll.

Human interactions

Under most circumstances, the blacktip reef shark has a timid demeanor and is easily frightened away by swimmers. However, its inshore habitat preferences bring it into frequent contact with humans, and thus it is regarded as potentially dangerous. As of early 2009, 11 unprovoked attacks and 21 attacks total (none fatal) were listed on the International Shark Attack File that are attributable to the blacktip reef shark. Most attacks involve sharks biting the legs or feet of waders, apparently mistaking them for their natural prey, and do not result in serious injury. In the Marshall Islands, native islanders avoid blacktip reef shark attacks by swimming rather than wading through shallow water, as a way of discouraging these sharks is to submerge one's body. The blacktip reef shark has also been known to become aggressive in the presence of bait, and may pose a threat while attempting to steal the catches of spear fishers.

The blacktip reef shark is a normal catch of coastal fisheries, such as those operating off Thailand and India, but is not targeted or considered commercially important. The meat (sold fresh, frozen, dried and salted, or smoked for human consumption), liver oil, and fins are used. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed the blacktip reef shark as Vulnerable and declining. Though it remains widespread and common overall, substantial local declines due to overfishing have now been documented in many areas. This species has a low reproductive rate, limiting its capacity for recovering from depletion. Blacktip reef sharks are popular subjects of public aquarium exhibits, because of their stereotypically "shark-like" appearance, ability to breed in captivity and modest size, and are also attractions for ecotourism divers.

See also
 Oceanic whitetip shark and Whitetip reef shark – another species of requiem sharks known for and named after the coloration of the tips of its fins

References

External links

 Carcharhinus melanopterus, Blacktip reef shark at FishBase
 Biological Profiles: Blacktip Reef Shark at Florida Museum of Natural History Ichthyology Department

blacktip reef shark
Fish of the Indian Ocean
Fish of the Pacific Ocean
blacktip reef shark

Blacktip reef shark


Norbit is a 2007 movie directed by Brian Robbins, and starring Eddie Murphy. It was released on February 9, 2007 and was a box-office success and was acclaimed from audience, although it received poor reviews from film critics.

Plot
Norbit Albert Rice (Eddie Murphy) and Kate Thomas (Thandie Newton) are best friends at the Golden Wonton Orphanage and Chinese restaurant run by Mr. Wong (Murphy), until Kate is adopted and they are separated. While being bullied by twins at a playground one day, Norbit is saved by Rasputia Latimore (Murphy), an overweight tough girl who, in return for scaring him to be her boyfriend, protects him from other bullies and frightens the other children into playing with him. When they reach adulthood, Rasputia becomes an overbearing, moody, vindictive woman.

Eventually, the two marry due to pressure from Rasputia and her three coarse, thuggish older brothers and henchmen Big Black Jack (Terry Crews), Blue (Lester "Rasta" Speight), and Earl (Clifton Powell) who the whole town (except Mr. Wong) live in fear of and also make Norbit their bookkeeper at their building company. The town's fear of the Latimore brothers comes from their fear of Rasputia. During their marriage, Rasputia bullies, tyrannises, and insults Norbit to keep him to herself until she eventually resents him and has an affair with her dance instructor Buster (Marlon Wayans). Norbit calls her out on this and she becomes angered and chases him throughout the neighborhood. He escapes her and throws away his wedding ring due to her deception.

During a puppet show at the orphanage, Norbit vents out his anger at Rasputia's cheating when he unexpectedly sees Kate for the first time in years. Stunned by her return, he falls in love with her again when she reveals that she is buying the Golden Wonton; the following Tuesday, while out to lunch with Kate, he is dejected to find out she has become engaged to a man named Deion (Cuba Gooding, Jr.).

With help from his ex-pimp friends Pope Sweet Jesus (Eddie Griffin) and Lord Have Mercy (Katt Williams), Norbit eventually manages to go on a date with Kate without Rasputia's knowledge. Deion is revealed to be a gold digger and a crooked businessman, who is helping the Latimore brothers in their plans to convert the orphanage into a strip club called Nipplopolis and they dupe Norbit into getting Kate to sign the papers which will renew the liquor licence and put it in their name. When Norbit meets Kate that evening, it leads to him help her reciting her wedding vows, and the two kiss, leading Kate to reconsider her wedding. When Norbit returns home, he learns that Rasputia witnessed the whole thing and she threatens to kill Kate if Norbit ever sees her again.

The next morning, Norbit is locked in the basement by Rasputia, who is the mastermind of the orphanage plot and had her brothers carry it out. When Kate confronts Norbit about the deal, he reluctantly insults her to stop Rasputia following through with her threat of violence. Rasputia then adds that ever since Kate came back to town, Norbit has played her, making her run away in sadness while Rasputia laughs and mocks her. Norbit decides to leave town for good, but not before tries in vain to warn Kate about Deion.

After that, Norbit is caught by Rasputia and her brothers (who were alerted by Rasputia) and they reveal their plans for the orphanage before imprisoning him in the basement again. Blue is chosen by Rasputia to stay and keep watch due to being the smartest of the brothers, but Norbit escapes and races to the church by bicycle. Although the Latimores try to stop him, Norbit arrives at the church and tells Kate about Deion's gold-digging, but his proof of Deion's divorce settlements were destroyed after he fell into a pond. However, Deion's ex-wives arrive with their children by him, each with conflicting tales about him as arranged by Norbit to help him find more proof of Deion's wrongdoings.

Deion runs away with his ex-wives in pursuit, effectively ending his marriage to Kate. Furious, Rasputia and her brothers try to kill Norbit for ruining their plans, but the townspeople unite and protect him. In a blind fury, Rasputia fights her way through the crowd armed with a spade. She orders her brothers to get out of the way as she tries to kill Norbit, but is harpooned in the backside by Mr. Wong. She and her brothers are chased out of town, and Kate reconciles with Norbit, and the two share a kiss. Norbit then ends his marriage to Rasputia, on the grounds of her affair with Buster, her attempted murder of him, and her plan to take over the orphanage.

Norbit and Kate buy the orphanage and marry under the same tree where they played in childhood. Meanwhile, Rasputia and her brothers flee to Mexico where they open their strip bar El Nipplopolis, where Big Black Jack becomes their bartender and Rasputia becomes their most lucrative stripper.

Other websites

2007 movies

Norbit


Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez (born 1964 in Mexico City, Mexico) is a Latin-American composer and teacher.  He currently resides near Rochester, New York.

Sanchez-Gutierrez grew up in Guadalajara and later studied at the University of Guadalajara, the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Yale University, Princeton University, and the Tanglewood Music Center with Henri Dutilleux, Jacob Druckman, and Martin Bresnick.

Sanchez-Gutierrez was a recipient of the Mozart Medal in 1993. He has also received awards from the Guggenheim, Fulbright, Fromm, Barlow, Rockefeller, Bogliasco and Koussevitzky Foundations. His compositional catalog includes works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, choirs, and soloists, and often reflects on contemporary art and literature.

Sanchez-Gutierrez is currently Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, a position he has held since July 2003.  From 1995 to 2003, Sanchez-Gutierrez served on the faculty of San Francisco State University, where he taught courses in music theory and composition.  In 2002, he was Guest Professor of Composition at Yale University.

External links
Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez official site

1964 births
Living people
American male classical composers
American classical composers
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
University of Rochester faculty
Pupils of Jacob Druckman
21st-century American composers
Musicians from Baltimore
Peabody Institute alumni
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians

Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez


Dedollarisation refers to countries reducing reliance on the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency, medium of exchange or as a unit of account.

The U.S. dollar began to displace the pound sterling as international reserve currency from the 1920s since it emerged from the First World War relatively unscathed and since the United States was a significant recipient of wartime gold inflows. After the U.S. emerged as an even stronger superpower during the Second World War, the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 established the post-war international monetary system, with the U.S. dollar ascending to become the world's primary reserve currency for international trade, and the only post-war currency linked to gold at $35 per troy ounce.

Since the establishment of the Bretton Woods system, the US dollar has been used as the medium for international trade. The United States Department of the Treasury exercises considerable oversight over the SWIFT financial transfers network, and consequently has a huge sway on the global financial transactions systems, with the ability to impose sanctions on foreign entities and individuals.

Devaluation of the dollar
Under the Bretton Woods system established after World War II, the value of gold was fixed to $35 per ounce, and the value of the U.S. dollar was thus anchored to the value of gold. Rising government spending in the 1960s, however, led to doubts about the ability of the United States to maintain this convertibility, gold stocks dwindled as banks and international investors began to convert dollars to gold, and as a result, the value of the dollar began to decline. Facing an emerging currency crisis and the imminent danger that the United States would no longer be able to redeem dollars for gold, gold convertibility was finally terminated in 1971 by President Nixon, resulting in the "Nixon shock".

The value of the U.S. dollar was therefore no longer anchored to gold, and it fell upon the Federal Reserve to maintain the value of the U.S. currency. The Federal Reserve, however, continued to increase the money supply, resulting in stagflation and a rapidly declining value of the U.S. dollar in the 1970s. This was largely due to the prevailing economic view at the time that inflation and real economic growth were linked (the Phillips curve), so inflation was regarded as relatively benign. Between 1965 and 1981, the U.S. dollar lost two thirds of its value.

Sectoral developments

Trading oil or other commodities

Argentina
Starting from early 2023, Argentina plans to join Brazil in paying for Chinese imports using the yuan instead of U.S. dollars. The country's goal is to safeguard its diminishing reserves of U.S. dollars. Argentina has been facing a significant decline in agricultural exports due to a severe drought, resulting in reduced inflow of dollars. In April 2023, Argentina intends to purchase approximately US$1 billion worth of Chinese imports using the yuan. Following that, the country aims to pay around $790 million worth of monthly imports in the Chinese yuan.
After China and Argentina declared in April that their swap line had been opened, Argentina was able to utilise the equivalent of 1.04 billion yuan to pay for Chinese imports in May. The line was then increased to $18 billion over the following three years in June, during Massa's visit to China.

Brazil
In late March 2023, China and Brazil finalized an agreement to conduct trade using their respective currencies.

Bolivia
In April 2023, Bolivian President Luis Arce revealed that the government is actively considering the adoption of China's yuan as an alternative to the U.S. dollar for conducting international trade. The decision stems from Bolivia's ongoing challenge of insufficient liquidity in domestic markets, with shortages of U.S. dollars escalating since early 2023, due to the declining net international reserves.

China
Since 2011, China is gradually shifting from trade in US dollar and in favour of Chinese yuan, and in March 2018, China started buying oil in gold-backed yuan.

In March 2022, multiple reports claimed that Saudi Arabia was in talks with China about trading Saudi oil and gas to China in Chinese yuan instead of dollars.

In December 2022 at China - GCC Summit, President Xi Jinping called for Oil trade payments to be settled at yuan. Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated that Chinese-Arab relations experienced a "historic improvement."

Europe
Immediately at the start of the War in Ukraine, mostly Western countries imposed heavy sanctions on Russian commodities and banking sector. As a response, on 31 March 2022 Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree mandating unfriendly countries from April 1 to pay the natural gas imports in rubles. European leaders have initially rejected paying for deliveries in rubles, marking that such a move would undermine sanctions already imposed on Moscow. In April 2022, four European gas companies made trade payment settlements in rubles. Gas imports from Russia to Europe maintained a stable level for some months but experienced a significant decline following the destruction of Nord Stream pipelines. In 2023, the imports have plummeted by 20% compared to the preceding year.

Ghana
On 24 November 2022, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia stated that they are working to buy Oil in Gold and he added "The barter of gold for oil represents a major structural change."

Iran
As a result of US sanctions, Iran has tried hard to reduce its reliance on the dollar. The country has been seeking alternative ways or methods in order to conduct international trade utilizing diverse currencies such as the Euro. Islamic Republic of Iran is also striving to apply blockchain technology and digital currencies in order to bypass the international financial system and likewise to reduce the effect of sanctions.

Malaysia
Due to the fluctuations in the dollar in recent years, there are countries like Malaysia that are seeking an appropriate alternative to the dollar in global trade transactions in order to strengthen their economy. On the other hand, according to Malaysia, the de-dollarization and lower demand of the country in order to apply the dollar in commercial transactions will be able to provide the ground for the stabilization of the ringgit (its local currency). The president of this country mentioned that with the economic power given to Asian countries among China/Japan, there isn't any reason for Malaysia to remain dependent on the dollar, and on the other hand, the central banks of these two countries (i.e. China and Malaysia) have begun their discussions in regard to the implementation of trade in each other's currencies.

Russia
In August 2022, Turkey and Russia agreed to use rubles in trade of the natural gas.

In September 2022, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said that they have signed an agreement to make trade payments in rubles and yuan instead of US dollars.

In November 2022, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak confirmed that all gas supplied to China via Siberia are settled in rubles and yuan.

On March 23, 2022, Putin signed an order forbidding "non-friendly" countries (including EU countries, United States and Japan) from buying Russian gas in any other currency besides the Russian ruble in the wake of sanctions given in aftermath of 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. As of 2022, Russia is the world's biggest gas exporter, making 17% of world gas export.

Saudi Arabia
In January 2023, Finance Minister of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Al-Jadaan stated that it is open to trade in other currencies besides the US dollar, and this expression is considered to be the first time in 48 years.

Venezuela
In August 2018, Venezuela declared that it would price its oil in euros, yuan, rubles, and other currencies.

Forex reserves
According to the IMF's Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves (COFER) survey the share of reserves held in U.S. dollars by central banks fell from 71 percent in 1999 to 59 percent in 2021.

China
Effective from 6 June 2023, China has said to its state-owned banks to substantially reduce the interest rates on dollar deposits.

Egypt
In May 2022, Egyptian Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait announced the intention to issue bonds in yuan to raise capital as an mechanism to diversify the sources of finance.

Myanmar
In September 2022, Chairman of State Administration Council Min Aung Hlaing stated that they are planning to reduce US dollar reliance and to include trade in other foreign currencies. Apart from this there had been discussion to use Mir Payments system for payments.

Kazakhstan
In December 2015, the Kazakhstan government and national bank announced plans to reduce dollar dependency and strengthen the national currency. The joint statement of Kazakhstan government and national bank stated that their intent is to strengthen their national currency rather than focus on eliminating US dollars. In August 2016, after inflation surged to a 6-year high, the Kazakhstan central bank governor stated that it is a necessity to kickstart dedollarisation.

Russia
In June 2021, Russia stated it will eliminate the dollar from its National Wealth Fund to reduce vulnerability to Western sanctions just two weeks before Russia's president Vladimir Putin held his first summit meeting with U.S. leader Joe Biden.

Russia had been planning to buy more yuan in the foreign exchange market in 2023 for trade settlements. The Russian Finance Ministry and Central Bank of Russia stated that it would sell around 54.5 billion rubles in foreign currency from January 2023.

(iii) Bilateral trade agreements

India-Russia
Before 1991, Soviet Union and India traded in rupee-ruble exchange during Cold War. Mutual trading between India and Russia is done mostly in rubles and rupees instead of dollars and euros.

Australia/Russia/Japan/Brazil/Iran
It made agreements with Australia, Russia, Japan, Brazil, and Iran to trade in national currencies. It has been reported that in the first quarter of 2020 the share of the dollar in the bilateral trade between China and Russia fell below 50 percent for the first time. In 2011, Japan made an agreement with China to trade in national currencies. Sino-Japanese trade had a value of US$300 billion.

Brazil-China
In March 2013, during the BRICS summit, Brazil made an agreement with China to trade in Brazilian real and Chinese yuan.

Australia-China
In 2013, Australia made an agreement with China to trade in national currencies.

INSTEX
In 2015, China launched CIPS, a payment system which offers clearing and settlement services for its participants in cross-border Renminbi payments and trade as an alternative to SWIFT. Since the end of 2019, the EU countries established INSTEX, a European special-purpose vehicle (SPV) to facilitate non-USD and non-SWIFT transactions with Iran to avoid breaking U.S. sanctions. On 11 February 2019, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov stated that Russia would be interested in participating in INSTEX.

Iran-EU
In March 2020, the first Iran-EU INSTEX transaction was concluded. It covered an import of medical equipment to combat the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran. European countries said in March 2023 they had decided to end a scheme put in place in 2019 to allow trade with Iran and protect companies doing business with it from US sanctions, but it was only a single one transaction traded.

Others
In March 2022, India and Russia entered for a RupeeRuble Trade Arrangement. In July 2022, Russia and Iran made modifications in their Bilateral trade to reduce the dependency of US dollar. The new monetary system could mean the debts can be settled in their own countries and could reduce the demand for US dollars by 3 billion a year. In December 2022, Sri Lanka and Mauritius started using the rupee for international trade. Tajikistan, Cuba, Luxembourg and Sudan have also shown interest to use this mechanism.

In January 2023, Russia and Iran were planning to trade with gold backed cryptocurrencies as an alternative to US dollar. Also, the same month, Argentina and Brazil proposed a common currency for trade which is termed as Sur. Sur combines the currency of Argentina's peso and Brazil's real. The same month, Brazil and China entered into a preliminary agreement to trade in national currencies instead of US dollar.
In May 2023, South Korea and Indonesia signed a memorandum of understanding to promote bilateral trade in national currencies, moving away from the US dollar as an intermediary.

In early May 2023, the central banks of South Korea and Indonesia entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at fostering collaboration in advancing the utilization of their respective currencies for bilateral transactions. This includes promoting the use of their currencies for activities like current account transactions and direct investment between the two countries.

(iv) Dollar-denominated assets
As academic Tim Beal summarizes, many commentators view the United States' overly broad imposition of financial sanctions as a factor increasing dedollarisation because of responses like the Russian-developed System for Transfers of Financial Messages (SPFS), the China-supported Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), and the European Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) that followed the United States' withdrawal of from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran.

Russia

Russian Federation accelerated the process of dedollarisation in 2014 as a result of worsening relations with the West. In 2017, SPFS, a Russian replacement of the SWIFT financial transfer system, was developed by the Central Bank of Russia. The system had been in development since 2014, after the United States government threatened to disconnect Russia from the SWIFT system. Lukoil, a state-owned company, had announced that it will find a replacement for the dollar.

On March 17, 2022, Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, announced that the Central Bank of Russia and the People's Bank of China are working on connecting the Russian and Chinese financial messaging systems. He also pointed to the beginning of the development of information transfer schemes using blockchains, including the digital ruble and the digital yuan. On March 31, 2022, the Economic Times published information that India has offered Russia a new transaction system with the transfer of trade to the ruble and SPFS, which will work through the Reserve Bank of India and Russia's Vnesheconombank. According to the same data, the system will be put into operation within a week.

On March 30, 2023, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Alexander Babakov on the sidelines of the Russian Indian Business Forum in New Delhi stated that the BRICS countries can create a new currency that will be backed not by gold but by real resources, including land and rare earth metals.

Zimbabwe
After a year of the RTGS Dollar having been the only legal tender, Zimbabwe adopted dollarization due to hyperinflation. In June 2019, it also reduced the usage of a multicurrency system and preferred to switch to the US dollar. In an interview with former Finance Minister Tendai Biti, he pointed out that dedollarisation has failed dismally.

In 2022, Zimbabwe introduced a new form of currency made by gold, the Mosi-oa-Tunya, to reduce inflation since the local currency had considerably weakened. The governor of the Reserve Bank John Mangudya said that the gold coins will contain one troy ounce of 22-carat gold, and that trade could be carried out both locally and internationally.

Reaction
Evidence from economics researcher Jonathan Hartley published in June 2023 shows that the US dollar share of central bank reserves, global debt securities, and foreign exchange trading are unchanged since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and sanctions of Russian reserve assets. In the case of central bank reserves, the US dollar share of central bank reserves is 10% higher as of July 2023 than it was in the early 1990s.

On May 24, 2023, IMF Managing director Kristalina Georgieva stated that " We don't expect a rapid shift in reserves because the reason the dollar is a reserve currency is because of the strength of the US economy and the depth of its capital markets."

On June 6, 2023, JP Morgan stated that "De-dollarization is evident in FX reserves where USD share has declined to a record as share in exports declined, but it is still emerging in commodities."

On July 11, 2023, S&P Chief Economist Paul Gruenwald stated that "The U.S. (dollar) will continue to be a leading world currency, (but) it will no longer be the dominant world currency."

See also

 World currency
 Currency substitution

References

International trade
Bilateral trading relationships

Dedollarisation


Giuseppina Quaglia Borghese (Turin 1764 – Turin, 17 January 1831) was an Italian painter and pastellist.

Borghese lived in Turin and was the wife of Pietro Francesco Borghese. In a 1787 poem, conte Felice Sammartino della Motta praised her abilities in pastel, but suggested that she emulate Louis Guttenbrunn and shift her focus to oil painting instead. Charles Felix of Savoy noted in a 1788 diary entry that she visited him to present him with a portrait of the princess of Piedmont. Five of her pastels, including portraits of Catherine II of Russia and Vittorio Gaetano Costa d'Arignano and a depiction of Faith after Guido Reni, were exhibited in Turin in 1820; these may have been earlier works which she still had in her possession. Borghese was the mother of Ottavia Borghese Masino di Mombello (1791-1856), who went on to exhibit artistic talent of her own.
She died on 17 January 1831, 66 years old.

References

1764 births
Year of birth uncertain
1831 deaths
Artists from Turin
Italian women painters
18th-century Italian painters
18th-century Italian women artists
Pastel artists

Giuseppina Quaglia Borghese