The Hibernian Thread

[ICTChris]

9 minutes ago, Ric said:

For a start, that's not what happens, there is no £1m sitting on a table. It's a totally false premise. So let's sidestep that crazy notion.

It is "earned" by spending day after day under a religious zealot, and by the end of it you can wash your sins off with that money.

Saying something is "on the table" is a commonly used metaphor.  The point is it's easy to say you'd turn down money like that when these things are entirely hypothetical.

 

[Les Cabbage]

Boyle is definitely one of the few footballers that remain that you can file under the “not a c**t” banner.

The fact he signed 2 new contracts with Hibs, the first, so that we would get money for him if he goes and the second so that we get decent money if he goes shows the guy has a real loyalty and appreciates what the club have done for him, definitely an outlier to the careerists that we see everywhere else.

FWIW I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, would I f**k offer to stay at my employer because they paid for my training etc if another company came along and offered to double my salary but if I did that would definitely bring me under the banner of “not a c**t.”

[Dons_1988]

4 minutes ago, Ric said:

Those who have met me know I am as principled in real life as I am on this board.

Stop belittling very clearly held opinions because of the medium they are being presented in.

Well I haven’t met you mate, sorry. 

I understand the principle of the stance you take, and I largely agree with it. But it ain’t your place to write Martin Boyle off as a c**t for a personal decision he takes in his life and career. 

Well I suppose it is, it just makes you a bit of a c**t yourself, I suppose. 

[Empty It]

bigotry as part of the religious culture.

We house the OF in this country m9.

[wastecoatwilly]

Ok who took Rics bait own up.

[DukDukGoose]

All this moral dilemma reminds me of the time we asked a homophobic colleague if he'd give someone a blowjob for £1m.

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

While he presents it in his usual inimitable style I think Ric certainly has a point. SA seems a pretty awful place and moving there in a high profile profession is in essence sports washing. I especially find it odd the Boyle's would consider this when his wife is also a professional footballer who would likely have to immediately retire or not move with him.

Its very naive to suggest that that level of money can simply be ignored though. When I was teaching English overseas a fair few people had the aim of, after using the skill to spend time living in Europe or South America, heading to one of the middle east countries that will pay you ridiculous amounts. I was tempted briefly myself. And that's just talking about enough money to pay off student loans and have a deposit for a house, so the wages being reported here must be hugely tempting for anyone. The caveat being, of course, that footballers are not exactly poorly paid at his level in the UK anyway. 

[Snifter Pee Rot]

How much salary would Ric need to abandon his principals and set up shop in The Kingdom? I am thinking 100k tax free might shed this Buddy of any HR obstacles. Any higher and he'd be doing hits for Bin Salman

 

Just kidding Ric. 

 

 

[Dons_1988]

8 minutes ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

While he presents it in his usual inimitable style I think Ric certainly has a point. SA seems a pretty awful place and moving there in a high profile profession is in essence sports washing. I especially find it odd the Boyle's would consider this when his wife is also a professional footballer who would likely have to immediately retire or not move with him.

Its very naive to suggest that that level of money can simply be ignored though. When I was teaching English overseas a fair few people had the aim of, after using the skill to spend time living in Europe or South America, heading to one of the middle east countries that will pay you ridiculous amounts. I was tempted briefly myself. And that's just talking about enough money to pay off student loans and have a deposit for a house, so the wages being reported here must be hugely tempting for anyone. The caveat being, of course, that footballers are not exactly poorly paid at his level in the UK anyway. 

I have no issue with the idea that it’s an ethical dilemma to go there. Of course it is. 

My issue is with the idea that ‘Martin Boyle is a c**t and it’s not even an argument’ if he goes. 

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

1 minute ago, Dons_1988 said:

I have no issue with the idea that it’s an ethical dilemma to go there. Of course it is. 

My issue is with the idea that ‘Martin Boyle is a c**t and it’s not even an argument’ if he goes. 

Oh aye agreed there, I and many others would probably think a bit less of him (not that he'd give a shit I'm sure) but it is a dilemma. Was just giving my general thoughts on it 

[ICTChris]

14 minutes ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

While he presents it in his usual inimitable style I think Ric certainly has a point. SA seems a pretty awful place and moving there in a high profile profession is in essence sports washing. I especially find it odd the Boyle's would consider this when his wife is also a professional footballer who would likely have to immediately retire or not move with him.

Its very naive to suggest that that level of money can simply be ignored though. When I was teaching English overseas a fair few people had the aim of, after using the skill to spend time living in Europe or South America, heading to one of the middle east countries that will pay you ridiculous amounts. I was tempted briefly myself. And that's just talking about enough money to pay off student loans and have a deposit for a house, so the wages being reported here must be hugely tempting for anyone. The caveat being, of course, that footballers are not exactly poorly paid at his level in the UK anyway. 

I'd assume that his family would stay at home while he would play there for however long the Saudi football season is, unless they fancy some of the compound life.  Kind of like a lot of guys who work abroad do it.

I know people who have worked on oil rigs in some pretty crazy countries, NIgeria, Colombia, Libya (Gadaffi era) etc.  Not sure I'd be that keen on it and certainly none of them gave the politics of wherever they were going much thought.

 

[Ron Aldo]

Boyle will be making decent money at Hibs, no doubt, but it won't be life changing.

At 29 he's unlikely to be offered anywhere near this amount of money again. I really don't see how anyone could turn it down.

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

1 minute ago, ICTChris said:

I'd assume that his family would stay at home while he would play there for however long the Saudi football season is, unless they fancy some of the compound life.  Kind of like a lot of guys who work abroad do it.

I know people who have worked on oil rigs in some pretty crazy countries, NIgeria, Colombia, Libya (Gadaffi era) etc.  Not sure I'd be that keen on it and certainly none of them gave the politics of wherever they were going much thought.

 

I lived in Colombia for a year, you saw the odd very unofficial looking technical with a 50. cal on it and big military presence on the trunk roads but it was fine as long as you didn't go somewhere dangerous, and it was pretty obvious where those were. That was the year the FARC peace deal was being negotiated though and it's het up a lot since then with even more indigenous leaders and journos getting the bullet. A politically awful place, although in a different way to SA, but very sound folk. 

[Chefki Kuqi]

I've never really understood the sports-washing argument. I think the idea is that by buying a football or sponsoring a sporting event the general public will forget all the nasty things you do? Doesn't really seem to be the case from what I can see, see the views on Qatar 2022 being generally negative and most English football supporters slagging off the wealth of each others clubs owners. I suppose the supporters of the clubs themselves maybe turn a blind eye and are happy for the success, but I don't think that means they condone the way in which their owners have accumulated their wealth. Happy to be enlightened.

Martin Boyle isn't a c**t if he accepts the move to Saudi Arabia for big money. To my knowledge he's never been particularly vocal on any political subjects, so I'm not sure where 'buying his silence' comes into it, they're buying a footballer presumably to make them better at playing football in what is over here at-least a fairly low profile league. Will he have it written into his contract that he's unable to speak out about his views on life in Saudi Arabia? If he does then I suppose it is buying his silence, but again it's not like he was an outspoken critic in the first place. 

Usual disclaimers apply regarding my own views, but I do find this moralising over careers rather fruitless. Unless you're being bought to directly work for a repressive regime and implement its policies I don't think you or anyone else need lose much sleep over it. I do understand that it is something of a moral dilemma, as there is perhaps an indirect condoning of what's going on, but would it be any different if Boyle was signed by Man City or Chelsea?  

 

 

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by Chefki Kuqi

[wastecoatwilly]

30 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

I have no issue with the idea that it’s an ethical dilemma to go there. Of course it is. 

My issue is with the idea that ‘Martin Boyle is a c**t and it’s not even an argument’ if he goes. 

They're plenty of c***s playing in Scottish football, Martin Boyle is a diving c**t before he goes.

[Leith Green]

47 minutes ago, Snifter Pee Rot said:

How much salary would Ric need to abandon his principals and set up shop in The Kingdom? I am thinking 100k tax free might shed this Buddy of any HR obstacles. Any higher and he'd be doing hits for Bin Salman

You would need to pay me a fuckload more than that to work in Fife M9............................

[G51]

Footballers are always going to take the highest wage. It's a job to them. 

It's kinda tough to slag the guy for going to SA. He's not really "sports-washing", nobody is going to think any better of SA because Martin Boyle plays football there (many may actually think a lot less of the standard of their football league). Yes it's a terrible regime, but it's lifechanging money in exchange for doing something unrelated to the worst aspects of the regime, and decent people regularly make the decision to accept life-changing money while working for obviously bad companies/countries. If you had families and friends working offshore on the rigs making huge sums of cash while killing the planet, would you think less of them for it?

[D Angelo Barksdale]

The Saudi's are just following the Dubai and Abu Dhabi route into respectability. Hardly anyone bats an eyelid at these places now, it'll eventually end up the same for SA in 10-20 years time.

As for Boyle, although he will be well off relatively speaking, it's life changing money and financial security for his family for a generation or 2. In terms of the sportswashing argument, Boyle isn't even going to move the needle slightly in this regard when you have pro golfers worth over 100 million taking the petrodollars not only to play over there, but explicitly also say nice things about the place.

 

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

Sports-washing has, of course, individual Scottish punters as its key target demographic lol.   

[G51]

2 hours ago, Ric said:

 

I'm not repeating the question, the facts are very clear, they have a choice, riches on one side or being able to sleep knowing you didn't perpetrate the suffering of others.

Maybe I'm just less bothered about the material things in life, but that is the easiest choice I'd ever make.

The idea that Martin Boyle would perpetrate the suffering of others by playing football in Saudi Arabia is genuinely hilarious. I'd love to hear the explanation behind this one.

And congratulations on being less bothered about the material things in life, to the extent that you'd turn down £2m in exchange for playing sports. That's the sort of piousness you'd expect to find in a monastery rather than a football forum.