Sharia law versus wonga

Having worked in the Middle East, for a good part of my life,I understand how this wonga story has impacted on the muslim fraternity, Newcastle have dropped the ball on this one. How they get round it is another matter. It is another story that will not just fade away.
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Newcastle United's £24m shirt sponsorship deal with Wonga was engulfed in
fresh controversy last night when the club's Muslim players were warned that
wearing the new shirts would infringe Sharia law.


The intervention from the Muslim Council of Britain will heap further pressure on the club as it seeks to deflect widespread criticism after unveiling a four-year deal with the short-term loan company.

Of the Newcastle team who took the field against Manchester United on Sunday,
four are practising Muslims РDemba Ba, Papiss Ciss̩, Cheick Tiot̩ and Hatem Ben
Arfa.

Wonga, whose deal to succeed Virgin Money begins next season, drew criticism
from MPs for the level of interest charged on its 30-day loans. If a Newcastle
supporter took out a loan to purchase a £49.99 club shirt, he would have to
repay £71.92 after one month – a rate that would be equivalent to 4,212 per cent
over a year.

The club did its best to offset criticism of the new deal by announcing that
the Sports Direct Arena would revert to its original name of St James' Park.
Wonga also promised to invest heavily in Newcastle's academy and the club's
foundation scheme, which helps 15- and 16-year-olds find work.

However, the deal drew a stinging attack from Nick Forbes, the leader of
Newcastle City Council, who said: "I'm appalled and sickened that they would
sign a deal with a legal loan shark. It's a sad indictment of the
profit-at-any-price culture at Newcastle United. We are fighting hard to tackle
legal and illegal loan sharking and having a company like this right across the
city on every football shirt that's sold undermines all our work."

Whilst it is accepted that Wonga have not behaved improperly it came in for
further criticism from the Muslim Council of Britain. Under Sharia law, a Muslim
is not allowed to benefit from lending money or receiving money from someone.
This means that earning interest is not allowed. To comply, interest is not paid
on Islamic savings or current accounts or applied to Islamic mortgages.

Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, assistant secretary general of the MCB, said: "There
are two aspects to this. We have the rulings of the religious law and we have
the individual's choice and decision on how they want to follow or not follow
that rule.

"The idea is to protect the vulnerable and the needy from exploitation by the
rich and powerful. When they are lending and are charging large amounts of
interest, it means the poor will have short-term benefit from the loan but
long-term difficulty in paying it back because the rate of interest is not
something they can keep up with. The Islamic system is based on a
non-interest-based system of transaction."

Frédéric Kanouté, the former Spurs striker, refused to wear the 888.com logo
of the gambling website when he was with Seville in La Liga because of his
religious beliefs. He was allowed to play games for Seville with an unbranded
shirt but had to wear the logo on his training equipment.

"Freddie was allowed to wear a top without the 888.com and that is a
reasonable request to be made by the player," added Mogra. "Assuming all four
are on the pitch at the same time, if you have seven out of 11 [who have the
advertising on their shirts] you have sufficient coverage. It is not asking too
much, I believe."

The Football Association entered the debate when its general secretary, Alex
Horne, expressed his reservations about Newcastle's deal. "The Football
Supporters' Federation of Britain told us in no uncertain terms it's not
appropriate, [Sunderland non-executive vice-president] David Miliband has told
us he does not think it is appropriate," Horne said.

"We are talking to the leagues on Friday about it. If you consider it as in
the category of things that are inappropriate for children like gambling and
alcohol, it feels like it is in that category to me."

While Blackpool and Hearts have already signed sponsorship deals with Wonga,
the issue of insolvency appears more acute on Tyneside. "According to official
figures, the North-east has the highest personal insolvency rate of anywhere in
the country, at 35.2 per 10,000 adults," said the president of R3, the trade
body for insolvency professionals, in response to Wonga's deal yesterday.

In the last financial year, to December 2011, Wonga more than tripled its
income to £184m, and made £59m profit, from around 2.5 million payday loans. The
£24m committed to Newcastle for 2013-17 will, however, launch the Wonga name to
a much wider audience.

"We are building a club that can regularly compete for top honours at the
highest level," said the Newcastle managing director, Derek Llambias. "As
everyone knows, a strong commercial programme is vital to this goal and I am
delighted to welcome Wonga into the fold as our lead commercial partner,
alongside Puma and Sports Direct.

"Throughout our discussions, Wonga's desire to help us invest in our young
playing talent, the local community and new fan initiatives really impressed us
and stood them apart from other candidates."

Errol Damelin, founder and chief executive of Wonga, said: "We're really
proud to be involved with Newcastle United. It is one of the biggest and most
important clubs in the UK by any measure and has a fantastic following around
the world.

"We're also really excited about investing in future stars both on and off
the field. The Academy and the Enterprise Scheme gives us the opportunity to
make a big difference."

A spokesman for Wonga said: "We listened over the last three days and we saw
what really matters to the fans.

"Football is an emotional sport and it is obviously really important to them.
We listened to what they wanted and that is why we did it."

Getting shirty: Sunderland – Invest in Africa

Sunderland claimed their latest shirt deal, unveiled this summer, is a
"not-for-profit initiative" to help promote investment. However, concerns grew
amid claims the "Invest in Africa" initiative's founding partner, Tullow Oil, is
responsible for damaging business practices in the continent.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...told-dont-play-in-new-wonga-tops-8204411.html

inShare1​

 

I personally think its a fantastic deal for Newcastle, in football now you take as much as you can get and **** what comes with it. We had a bit of this with invest in Africa but weren't bothered as it was a fantastic deal. Same will happen with Newcastle, I suspect.

 

It's only the "british muslim council2 that have so far condemned the sponsor so may not even be a problem until higher figures say so. If it is, i fully expect they will get custom made shirts without sponsor as freddie kanoute did at Sevilla.

 

Its lazy journo, if this was the case they wouldnt play with virgin money on it, just cause one charges 4% and the other 4000% they still make mone by lending money. I am looking forward to thick geordies though saying 'I'll gan on wonga and getta sub to gan in shearers for some nookie brun'

 

Maybe we could arrange to have some body parts removed.

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I'm willing to bet that it has no impact on the Mugs muslim players.

Must be a slow day in the sports journo dept for them to try and make a story out of this.

Come on Ashley Cole , Mario Ballatelli , John Terry or Joey Barton , give them a story to run with ffs.

 

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Would have preferred them being sponsored by TAMPAX.

 

Sharia law is not relevant in the uk

 

In terms of legal precedent

 

Neither is terrorism, but still is prevelent.