Now I could go on for days about this but I wont, I will leave that to my Twitter feed in which some of you may or not have seen @ToonBano.
In fact, speaking of my Twitter feed, Simon Bird of the Mirror has been making himself very heard towards some of our local journalists in the Newcastle area over the past couple of days. His main gripe isn't the deal itself but the fact he and other National Hacks weren't invited to the press conference Wonga and the club had put on yesterday to announce this deal. Now this seemed to infuriate Mr Bird no end and he let his feelings known. You can check out his Twitter feed over the past 2 days if you like. It's quite a read if you're into biased, hidden agenda, tripe. @simonbirdmirror
So reading into why The Mirror and others are so upset is because never mind the feelings towards Wonga that are argumentative at best and are a sub story to the real news. Never mind this nerver ending attitude towards Newcastle Utd as a football club the national hacks seem to have sub-consciously imprinted in their brains for some unknown reason. The real reason Simon and others are so annoyed beyond belief and are intent on making a storm out of a non-event wet fart like this, is because they weren't invited to the press conference? Leaving the local journalists to ask all of the questions and the nationals left sitting on their hands in seemingly fists of fury. How pathetic do you want to be?
Simon Bird summed up his disdain and arrogance nicely when he tweeted one of our local journos from The Journal, "I hope the local journos ask the tough questions about their (Wongas) business ethics"
Yea because;
a) local journos are completely incapable of asking 'tough' questions.
b) I think you'll find it was local journos who wrote stories about some local residents and supporters feelings about this potential deal and this wouldn't even be a story if it weren't for them reporting on it in the first place.
c) Forget the fact Wonga will be paying the local team the biggest amount of sponsorship money it has ever received. Forget the fact they have bought the local stadium naming rights and have decided to call it St James' Park again which has been met with huge support from the local people. Forget the fact that Wonga have agreed to invest in not just NUFC's academy for local talent but also in a foundation ran by the club which helps local youths find work in these tough economical days. The real tough question that needs to be asked at a Newcastle United Football Club press conference is, 'Why do you charge 4000% on your loans?"
Absolutely, laugh out loud, ridiculous.
As for the general press who are not based in the north east like Mr Bird. Can I ask an obvious question? Where were the stories about Blackpool and Hearts football clubs when they brokered a deal to be sponsored by Wonga? Well? I haven't seen any. Blackpool were a Premier League team when they were sponsored by Wonga and nobody wrote any stories criticising that football club. So what's so special about Newcastle? One argument is that Newcastle is full of some of the poorest people in the country and the exact type of residents Wonga target and exploit. Well so lets look into shall we?
If you were to look at the Chuch Urban Top 10 Poorest Areas In The UK no Newcastle area seems to appear. However, if you look a bit closely at the top 10 list you will clearly see an area of, that's right, Blackpool in there. South Shore, Blackpool to be precise Now, where were the stories telling the whole world that Blackpool football club are a disgrace for associating itself with this loan lending firm when they have one of the poorest areas in the UK in its city? There weren't any. But yet we are chastised and subjected to national disgrace once again. My point being that Newcastle seem to be Fleet Street's favourite poking space is well and truly just.
Another story I have seen around that has emerged overnight is the fact that some of our Muslim players may refuse to wear the Wonga logo on their shirts due to religious reasons. Apparently the Muslim faith does not approve of the act of lending money whilst charging interest for financial gain. A rich people taking advantage of the poor and needy if you will. Now none of us would have a problem with this if indeed our players refused to wear the new sponsorship logo for religious reasons. However, one major flaw with this story is as obvious as the nose on our Muslim players face. Alongside these stories, the national hacks have numerous pictures of Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse, Hatem Ben Arfa and Cheik Tiote proudly wearing the black and white shirt with Virgin Money on the front. Now correct me if I am wrong, but don't banks offer loans to customers with an interest rate attached so they can make some financial gain from the transaction? I think they do. So let me get this straight. They are more than willing to wear a bank, but somehow they will be unwilling to wear a loan lending company?
Again, absolute laugh out loud, ridiculous, tripe. How dumb are these people?
National Hacks. You're a joke and a disgrace. Please get a life and stop with this misguided agenda towards this proud football club. It's beyond a joke now. I mean tell us, what exactly did we do to you? I'm fascinated to find out.
(Comments welcome. Follow me on Twitter @ToonBano)
quite right I totally agree, what about Barclays sponsorship of the premiership, No journalists having a pop at Hearts either also sponsored by Wonga. Newcastle are newsworthy the others are not, if you take out all the financial institutions, booze companies etc. also against Sharia law we could theoretically have a mass exodus of moslem footballers in the Premiership according to the way the press look at things.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. 4 betting firms, a casino, alcohol, banks, Barclays themselves...but apparently a loan lending website is the lowest of the low? Absolute mockery. I never even heard of this Sharia law until we got involved with Wonga. No mention of it with Virgin Money, or even when Ba wore a betting firm on his West Ham shirt. People say us NUFC fans are delusional and there is no agenda against us from the southern press. Think on.
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