Some worrying news today that Papiss Cisse has been left out of the Newcastle United squad for the club’s pre-season tour of Portugal, and the squad left today without the Senegal striker.
Papiss Cisse – refusing to wear the Wonga insignia
Here is the 23 man squad that traveled to Portugal today, and it included Fab Coloccini and Tim Krul, but James Tavernier and Conor Newton didn’t make the squad:
Jak Alnwick, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi, Vurnon Anita, Hatem Ben Arfa, Yohan Cabaye, Adam Campbell, Fabricio Coloccini, Mathieu Debuchy, Paul Dummett, Rob Elliot, Yoan Gouffran, Jonas Gutierrez, Tim Krul, Sylvain Marveaux, Gabriel Obertan, Davide Santon, Moussa Sissoko, Steven Taylor, Cheick Tiote, Haris Vuckic, Mike Williamson, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa
We had hoped that Papiss would have worked out the problem of him not wanting to wear the Wonga logo on his training shirt and Newcastle strip, but that hasn’t happened, and we suppose there is still no solution to this problem.
It seems the number 9 at Newcastle is still unwilling to wear a Wonga shirt, and it’s based on religious grounds, with Cisse being a Muslim.
And the reason is that Sharia law does not allow any gain from lending out money, but surely our last sponsor Virgin Money did exactly the same thing, so it’s difficult to understand why that wasn’t a problem to the Senegal International.
But this is now starting to hurt Newcastle’s preparation for the upcoming season, because Cisse will miss the two games in Portugal, and we’re not sure what happens now.
Newcastle can always drop back to having Cisse wear a shirt without the Wonga sign, but the Wonga company themselves may be objecting to this, because Cisse wears the iconic number 9 shirt at Newcastle.
Cisse is willing to wear an unbranded shirt, or one bearing the logo of a charity, so that seems to be the best solution, if Cisse holds out and refuses to wear the Wonga insignia.
It’s not the best solution, but it’s a lot better than losing the best strikers Newcastle have at the moment, but unfortunately, this is what can happen when you allow a company with a very bad name in the UK, to become your shirt sponsor.
Other clubs, like Bolton as one example, pulled out of wearing shirts from companies who their fans objected to, in Bolton’s case it was pay-day lender pay-day loan company Quickquid.
But that was not the case at Newcastle, and the club are now seeing some of the repercussions of this, and it’s not only from the fans, but also from one of our best players.
We just hope this thing can be solved without it getting any worse than it is right now.
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53 comments so far
Chrism
Jul 17, 2013 at 6:18 PM
Comment #41versace101
even as a joke encitement to murder is criminal offence that carries a life sentence. Bloggers can be traced,be careful bonnie lad.
lesh
Jul 17, 2013 at 6:20 PM
Comment #42Could it be that Cisse feels he couldn’t give 1355% for the club?
Mmm
lesh
Jul 17, 2013 at 6:22 PM
Comment #43We need another striker or two why just work on the premix that he’s leaving and buy as though we’re buying a replacement?
Billythefish
Jul 17, 2013 at 6:47 PM
Comment #44Support the team, not the regime.
kev
Jul 17, 2013 at 7:10 PM
Comment #45So as a Muslim he wouldn’t want to play in the champions league because of Heineken? Won’t play in the Budweiser FA cup, Wouldn’t have worn a Newcastle Brown Ale shirt in the good old days? Wouldn’t go with a haram white girl either? Erm wait a moment…
It’s all bollocks, if he doesn’t like sponsorship he should quit football, not just Newcastle, get rid.
Toon Goose
Jul 17, 2013 at 7:13 PM
Comment #46Do not bite the hand that feeds you mate…!
Shape up – or ship out. He is average, at best, anyway.
lesh
Jul 17, 2013 at 7:19 PM
Comment #47Versaci…..
Calm yourself down and knock the caps off.
You’re working yourself into a right little tizzy and you know you’ll have trouble sleeping when your mammy puts you to bed. And that’ll be without a story too!
BarcelonaMag
Jul 17, 2013 at 7:45 PM
Comment #48Gonz (above):
Bigi isn’t a muslim; he’s a devout Christian.
roe997
Jul 17, 2013 at 7:56 PM
Comment #49From what i know bigi isnt muslim
dcbashore
Jul 17, 2013 at 8:19 PM
Comment #50As the others said, Bigirimana is a professing Christian.
As to this, assuming the Wonga issue in fact does exist, I think Cisse’s engineering a move.
RobinRamone
Jul 17, 2013 at 9:15 PM
Comment #51Did he not wear a virgin shirt? They do banking and lend money. He is attention seeking and a hipocrite.
savio
Jul 18, 2013 at 4:12 AM
Comment #52I dont think we should blame the management here…they got the best deal there…cisse is the person to blame here if there is any truth in this story…he is trying for a move…i dont think that the sharia law states about any interest rates in it…so virgin money and wonga are all same for muslims….cisse is just making an issue for a move…and just think what will be the influence on other muslim players in our club if we allow cisse to wear a blank jersey….even they will start creating issues…and we have lots of 1st teamers like ben arfa,tiote,sissoko whom are muslims….i think the club have taken a good stand here by not taking this stand…i would ot be that sad if cisse leaves….if it was cisse who left jan and if ba was there with us,we would have been a top 10 for sure..the overall play of ba is far far better than cisse…cisse does score some spectacular goals…but he misses some really easy ones…the only problem being we should then go for 3 new strikers…maybe we can go for ba ,remy and austin…
magpiedom
Jul 18, 2013 at 1:51 PM
Comment #53It’s hypocrisy. People who can’t work out if they can afford a loan or not are total morons. There are no hidden terms or conditions. It’s all up front.
You borrow X
You repay Y by date Z
If you fail to this, the consequences are ABC
Naive if you think Virgin is any different. It’s people not being able to work things out for themselves – bully for them.