Apparently he is refusing to wear the Betfred logo on religious grounds.

You couldn't make it up, with him or the club.

Maybe they want special grounds on that too

Happy to take money from them via the Sponsorship through his wages though.....interesting

Whilst it's great to have such principles, should each club have to cross reference any potential sponsor with every player prior to signing a deal, just to make sure it's ok.
Wonder if he knows that his club are competing in the "Betfred" super league, which will be advertised before during and after every game.
Bit of a headache for Toronto, especially so close to round 1.

He plays a sport that people gamble on, who's main sponsor is a book maker, many people will likely bet on him exclusively - i.e. how many games he'll actually play! Needs to have a word with himself, fair enough he's got a huge profile but he's starting to take the p*ss a bit with demands.

Looking forward to (hopefully) see him play down at BV towards the back end of the season though, going to be a shock to the system for him

Do no betting companies sponsor any RU competitions or teams?

All he's brought to the table so far is publicity and now added just a bit of controversy on his own personal beliefs. The man needs to shut up and play he's too old to be delaying it we all have principles but we have to compromise constantly in virtually all our daily life.

So what is exactly wrong with SBW position in this if true.

If he doesn't want to wear a shirt promotion a gambling company then I see no reason for people to start ranting and raving about it.

Apparently Toronto have no issue with this so why should any fans? or is gonna be the usual anti-muslim bashing when fans read about this.

Some football clubs. Celtic for example sell football shirts with no sponsorship so Muslim fans or anyone for that matter can buy the shirt without promoting alcohol for example.

This shouldn't be a big issue at all.



So you ignored the fact his employer has no issue with this.

Please explain how this is a factor in SBW deciding to wear a shirt with no promotion of a gambling company. SBW is choosing to do what is right for him personally. He can't change the whole sport and is not asking for that.

Why do you care so much if SBW wears a shirt not promoting Betfred? Does this personally upset you?

No he can't change the whole sport, he does have the choice whether to participate in a sport who's main sponsor is Betfred and literally facilitates gambling, however. I'm merely pointing out the hypocrisy, so let's not try turn this into a personal or anti muslim thing - I could be muslim for all you know. In an ideal world I'd remove adverts from sport in general, TV, social media etc but it's the nature of the beast. So you either put up with it like everyone else and fulfill your commitments then take your ridiculous pay check or don't participate - simple as.

If his principles are so important to him he probably needs to walk away now as he cannot remove himself totally from areas that he diagrees with. I don't believe there is anyway his contract and wages will not be tainted by some conflict with his principled life.

However the main sponsor may have a problem with it. That arguably the most well known and highest profile player in the league wont have the badge on his shirt.

No, he was at Cas on Sunday.

True

He's brought plenty of media coverage.
Maybe this is a "clever" publicity stunt ?

I believe thats what I said

Bet Fred are giving the league money for sponsorship.
If the highest profile player in the league won't back them then they are unlikely to keep doing so.
So yes it's an issue.

Don't bring the Muslim argument into it. That hasn't been raised by anyone on here.

But the "Muslim argument" is entrenched in the debate as it is down to SBW's religious beliefs that he is against wearing the BetFred logo on his shirt. I'll give you a clue as to why, SBW is Muslim

I think he meant the 'anti-muslim' argument. If SBW were to turn round and say he can't play in our league because of the betting sponsorship not agreeing with his beliefs, I'd totally respect him for that. But you can't have your cake and eat it. Either way, the publicity is good for the league I guess so crack on.

From the post quoted by pt there is no "anti Muslim" argument, just a statement of fact that celtic market shirts devoid of sponsorship in order to be able to sell them to their Muslim fans, if anything that is in support of the Muslim community and most definitely not negative

The post PT quoted says 'usual anti-muslim bashing', I'm presuming that's what he means by 'muslim argument'

Correct. He was implying we were doing the bashing which isn't true.

what a !!! happy to take the money but wont wear the sponsor

I so hope Toronto get relegated

Just wonder what would have happened if it had been a squad player low down in the pecking order at either Cas or Wakey that had refused to display the sponsorship.

No one here knows anything about the content of the conversation. He knew it was the Betfred Super League, I presume, but perhaps expressed to his club that he was a little uncomfortable with it, and his club said, "don't worry about it". A club he has bought shares in, by the way, where there might be a connection with their willingness to accommodate.