You should be proud to wear the shirt
Hi, guys. Sorry I’ve not posted for a while. Apart from being busy with house reconstruction, I’ve been waiting for some Bolton Wanderers news worth writing about, then BOOM! No, I’m not talking about Dougie’s old flame getting promoted to the Premier League… Ouch. I’m talking about our beloved, whiter-than-white, holier than though club signing a two year deal with pay-day loan company, QuickQuid.
The monetary size of the deal hasn’t been disclosed, but I read somewhere, the figure of £500,000 being banded around. Phil Gartside says he’s ‘excited’ to have the loan company as Bolton’s lead partner. Not the word I would have used, especially with so many disgruntled supporters scowling and crossing their arms. I can understand their disappointment, though. When I heard, a bitter taste formed in my mouth.
When we were in the Premier League, we were watching footballers earning hundreds of thousands of pounds a week while a lot of supporters were rummaging around the back of the sofa to find the funds to get to the game. Our kit maker, Adidas only in the last couple of months were forced to pay Indonesian sweatshop workers $1.8 million for immoral practices. When things like this are free of protestation, ignorance really is bliss.
Our previous betting-shop sponsor only raised eyebrows and they are thriving for the same reason pay-day loan companies have the funds to invest heavily in football clubs. These two booming legal fictions can be classed as immoral but they aren’t the source of the country’s financial problem, they are the result of it. These companies are popping up all over the place and thriving because people in this country- and it’s on the increase- can’t make ends-meet. As much as we look down and condemn such companies, for many people, they are the difference between eating or heating their home and starving or freezing.
While QuickQuid’s deal with Bolton may not be political, is there any coincidence that David Cameron and his millionaire Bullingdon Boy friends are making the cuts to peoples’ budgets while his friend and Tory advisor, Jonathon Luff, defects Downing Street to head lobbying for ‘legal loan-shark’ Wonga? Of course not. You don’t need a PHD to connect the dots of what’s going on in the grander scheme of things.
However these pay-day loan companies help peoples’ financial blues, Bolton Wanderers fusion with one of them leaves me feeling like I need a bath. Doing deals behind closed doors with companies who spark controversy is one thing, but soon, Bolton’s seniors will want Whites’ fans to walk round with one plastered across their chest.
I won’t be one of them.