Norman Hall, Newcastle fan
Newcastle United football team has agreed a £24 million sponsorship deal with Wonga.com, the short-term payday loans company.
Wonga, and other legalised loan shark firms, prey on the most down-trodden and vulnerable sections of society.
Wonga’s interest rates are 4,214% apr so a 30-day loan from Wonga to buy a £49.99 Newcastle shirt from Mike Ashley’s (Newcastle’s millionaire owner) Sports Direct, will cost £70.63 – 41% more.
North-east England is under the cosh of unemployment and public sector cuts. Many people, seriously struggling, will now see the name of a company making fortunes from their poverty, splashed across the chests of super-wealthy players.
Wonga also bought the naming rights to the stadium. Using the “spoonful of sugar helps the poison go down” approach, they changed the stadium’s name back to the traditional St James’ Park.
Some supporters just welcome the £24 million. Others say Wonga shouldn’t be touched with a borrowed barge pole.
Others say Wonga are scum but are they that much worse than any other financial institution such as former sponsors Northern Rock and Virgin Money? Look at Barclays, the Libor rate-rigging sponsor of football’s top competition, the Premier League.
Local Labour MPs and councillors correctly denounced the deal. However, Wonga was launched under the last Labour government, which did nothing to prevent these vultures setting up. Labour didn’t even put in controls to limit their extortionate interest rates.
The finance and banking industry definitely needs to be nationalised under democratic control and management.
And football should be controlled by the fans and their communities and not be the plaything of super-rich individuals or money-grabbing wide boys.
