The banality of evil.I’ve read it many, many times now; passages of media stories about Papiss Cisse alleged objection to wearing a Newcastle United shirt with a Wonga advert on it which usually go along the lines of:
“Islam forbids the lending of money for interest, and Cisse has raised concerns with the club’s hierarchy about United’s new sponsors.”
Or:
“Cisse is a practicing Muslim and his reported objections over promoting Wonga stem from Islamic Sharia law which states that Muslims must not benefit from either lending money or receiving money from another person.”
This is usually accompanied by a disingenous or obtuse (it’s hard to tell sometimes) response by an alleged Newcastle United fan which is so common it has become another fallacious, dishonest cliche. This one along the lines of:
“He’s a hypocrite if he refuses to wear Wonga because they charge interest. He wore Virgin Money last season and they charge interest too.”(more…)
Spot the difference.In the top photo, you can see an example of a £7.50 training T-Shirt from the existing Puma “Spirit” range side by side with the new Newcastle United change shirt with an almost identical design.
Now before I proceed, please don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to try and suggest that the two are actually the same items with just very minor changes in detailing as I haven’t examined them side by side. Nor am I trying to make the general point that replica team football shirts are a rip-off either, Freddy Shepherd and many others have made that point already.
However, writing as a designer myself, it is but one example among many of Puma’s lazy, poor and rehashed designs. The standard of the design is the same as you would expect to find from one of Mike Ashley’s sweatshop brands, and the same is true of the quality too, especially so if you remember the shirts of Newcastle United’s previous supplier, Adidas. For a supposedly premium product, they are an insult to Newcastle United’s fans, not to mention those of other clubs they supply. Then again, I am not a big replica shirt buyer personally, so I would very much like to hear the views of those of you who are.(more…)
Vampires.“And how the poverty of these unfortunates, among whom even thieves find nothing to steal, is exploited by the property-holding class in lawful ways.” – Frederick Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England.
It is no longer news that Internet loan shark “Wonga” will be the club’s sponsors from next season for a period of four years.
I was going to write this piece a few days ago, but on reflection, I decided to leave it for a short while to see what emerged in terms of further details about the deal itself, and also the level of opprobrium which was inevitably going to follow the announcement. The exact amount is still shrouded in secrecy, though a figure of £24 million for the four years (£6 million per year) was bandied around in the media after the announcement was made, then the Telegraph claimed that the figure is more like £8 million per year (£32 million over four years). When this was put to the Managing Director, Derek Llambias, he suggested that the £8 million figure was “not far off.” As it’s Llambias though, this may not be true, but it is all we have to go on. As well as this, it is also been claimed that Wonga will be investing a further £1.5 million in the club’s Academy.
Llambias had the following to say on the new deal: (more…)
