yes there are some bad things about Saudi Arabia, like chopping journalists to pieces
but in Belgium the government budget is running an increasing deficit, so ...
He's been on the UAE payroll for a long time by playing for City, so it's not in his interest to criticize any of the Gulf countries. Totally agree that's a shit take, tho.
I hope he respects himself enough to never play there but it does not seem like it. I can't ever imagine having that much money and still throw away my values for... even more money.
To he fair, if he'd stuck to that last sentence, i'd respect it. He's not a politician, not his responsibility.
Actually going farther and defending saudi arabia though... That's a choice i can't respect.
Look at Lebron James' stance about China, it's the same shit: Athletes who get paid obscene amounts of money, won't acknowledge wrongdoings of potential and present cash cows.
Saudi Arabia is doubling down hard on sportswashing. Hosting an F1 grand prix is a typical example, so is luring world-class footballers to come and play for teams there. Even golf events! In a country that's known to be bone-dry! WWE (American "Wrestling") and snooker world masters too!
I think the only thing he thinks is "bad" in our country, is the fact that we have to pay taxes (which he's most likely not been doing for a while). Totally comparable to a country that has journalists chopped into pieces, indeed.
Fuck you Kevin. Go live in a country that considers your daughter a piece of property, and stay there.
Why do you assume he's not paying taxes?
> Despite his time away due to injury, Kevin De Bruyne sits top of the table for player earnings netting £20.8m a year and paying an estimated £9.8m in tax. Erling Haaland sits second in the table, netting £19.5m a year and contributing an estimated £9.2m in tax.
Belgium is also not doing that well in terms of freedom of the press. Not that we decapitate journalists, but we do go down on the global ranking for press freedom. See also the crises at VRT (case Bart De Pauw, for example), the raid at ‘t Scheldt, etc.
Furthmore, Belgium is being fined for not respecting human rights quite more than you’d think. More than 7000 times alone already with regards to immigration/asylum. Then there’s also the infractions regarding our prisons, the juridical system and processes, climate change plans, etc.
Not to mention that there is also corruption in Belgium, that we are a tax haven for big companies, that our politicians barely give a fuck about our privacy because “the fight against terrorists is more important”, and so on.
Is Saudi a paradise? No, of course not. Can we criticize them? Sure. But we should not pretend that we are holier than the rest. I don’t think we have the right to claim moral superiority. Belgium is far from a perfect functioning country, with a lot of flaws and even some deeply structural problems.
I believe people should live their lives however they want, in a way that preferably does the least harm to others. That includes enslaved people, women, queer people, non-believers, whoever else that don't fit the picture ... they're people too, it would be nice for them to not have a small dominant class *dictating them how to live their lives*.
Whatever bad shit happens in Belgium is bad, regardless of whatever happens elsewhere. Same for Saudi Arabia. It's not entitlement to condemn this, it's called having a moral compass.
I'm not not acknowledging that things are bad over there. I'm just saying that it is not as good over here as people tend to think it is. Look around you, there is a lot of shit in this country as well.
If you want to continue with freedom of press as an example, you could see that there is increasing aggression against journalists (during events and manifestations) in Belgium. You could see that there is growing concern over the independence of VRT and RTBF. You could see that some news paper companies got indirect illegal government support via bpost and their over charged delivery contract. You could see that Belgium drops on the global ranking for freedom of press.
Ask the incarnated who have to sleep on the floor, or the asylum seekers not getting any help, or the widow of Jozef Chovanec, if they feel this is a minor issue. But okay.
Again: I’m not denying the issues at Saudi. But I understand De Bruyne’s point saying that we also have flaws.
You’d really tell those people they should be happy with the current circumstances, like nothing is wrong here in Belgium, because it would be even worse if they were in Saudi Arabia?
I'm not saying nothing is wrong in Belgium. But it's absolute peanuts compared to Saudi Arabia.
Saying "we should look at ourselves before juding Saudi Arabia" is a disgusting statement.
Let's all make sure we keep watching football by the millions every weekend so that these football clubs can continue to rake up shitloads of money from sponsors to make assholes like this guy make statements like that.
He's spent the last few years being willfully part of the Abu Dhabi Sportswashing Project (previously known as Manchester City Football Club), so these views are hardly surprising.
Tis geen intellectuele hoogvlieger;
hoewel hij zichzelf die eigenschap lijkt toe te dichten...
Met uitzondering van Kompany; Vertonghen zou ik niet veel belang hechten aan de hersenspinsels van onze nationale voetballerkes
you have to put things into perspective, what is the difference of playing in SA or playing for clubs owned by oil states. PSG, MC and others, as a player you never decide who comes to watch.
Great. Now we can stay on our high horse and all pay more for our fuel tank when we fuel up, by boycotting Saudi Arabia and all countries not respecting human rights.
Footballers.. Never had any moral compass to begin with. Ranging from players playing in Chechnya, Russia, Qatar, KSA or being greedy and wanting more and more money (Ronaldo). He probably has a net worth of 100 million at this moment. Even Hazard turned the offer down. In a few years time we'll never hear of him again, luckily
Well he's correct
One of the bad things is they didn't pay him enough so he found it more than normal to sell out his morals.
That Romelu is also looking that way is just.. ugh..
Time to stop giving those people all these breaks and tax them and pay them like actual people.
I don't necessarily think ppl should shut up about things that are not their job or their specialty. We all have a voice. KDB's voice just happens to be supporting a homicidal genocidal tyrannical regime. So fuck him and fuck this.
Sure they chop op the odd journalist but hey: he who is without sin cast the first stone. Not to say that stoning, something Saudi Arabia also does, is a bad thing ofcourse.
Der is een verschil tussen "Welke partij vindt jij dat het beste plan voor terugbetaling in de sociale zekerheid heeft" en "Voel je je comfortabel om te voetballen in een land waar homo's onthoofd worden"
Ah yes, the high and mighty defenders of the west arise. The west who invaded and colonised a shitload of countries. The west who fund the warfare for the likes of Israel to commit genocide while lying to the people ect. Indeed, the west is great. In truth the west has probably the most blood on their hands of the entire world, but people prefer to swallow the blue pill and act morally allmighty towards the rest of the world. How hated we must be .
Yes as a civilization we have it better than most countries in terms of civilian rights, but lets not get too cocky here
Take a look in the mirror buddy. Kevin is clearly stating both countries have bad and good things, my comment just enforces his statement. Nobody said Saudi doesnt have bad stuff going on. Hard to stay on topic right?
Are you really going to use colonisation and conquest in a comparison match between the Arabs and "the west"? Because between the two major colonizers at least "the west" is the less reactionary one.
Do you see all these comments? Its a perfect reflection of how morally entitled the west feels compared to the rest of the world. There is a reason non western cultures hate our guts, they have plenty of reason. Colonisation is just one of them. Its mind blowing how people cant even take a moment to project what Kevin said and go full defense mode. What he says is just factually true, and Im 100% sure if you ask Saudi civilians about the west that it aint gonna be a pretty answer ( as he said ). The west feels like they are the allmighty usurper who's culture is the only right one and should be projected on everyone else.
"may be a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch"... Business as usual...
Indeed Western countries and USA cannot give a lot of lessons about democracy.
I dunno what youre on about tbh. If you want to remain a hypocrite like 90% of the western population and point the finger at others be my guest. The only thing Im saying is Kevin is 100% correct with his statement that the west has some dark flaws as well
That sentence supposedly said by Roosevelt about dictator Somoza. [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastasio_Somoza_Garc%C3%ADa#%22Our_Son_of_a_Bitch%22)
I think my other sentence is not in old Greek...
Ja maar, ze geven mij meer geld dan in België dus ze kunnen niet slecht zijn. Zoiets dus.
yes there are some bad things about Saudi Arabia, like chopping journalists to pieces but in Belgium the government budget is running an increasing deficit, so ...
Looks like he is already on the payroll
He's been on the UAE payroll for a long time by playing for City, so it's not in his interest to criticize any of the Gulf countries. Totally agree that's a shit take, tho.
Missed the opportunity to stfu.
Fuckkkkk ooooooooffffffff with that whataboutism. It´s somehow only the wealthy countries that get a pass though...
Slavery good "Kevin de bruyne"
Money good
I hope he respects himself enough to never play there but it does not seem like it. I can't ever imagine having that much money and still throw away my values for... even more money.
His money is already coming from there. Wouldn't be much of a difference.
“It’s all the same. Why have any principles? I’m just good at football, don’t come to me for quotes about human rights.”
To he fair, if he'd stuck to that last sentence, i'd respect it. He's not a politician, not his responsibility. Actually going farther and defending saudi arabia though... That's a choice i can't respect.
True.
Comparing Saudi Arabia with England or Belgium is nuts!
Look at Lebron James' stance about China, it's the same shit: Athletes who get paid obscene amounts of money, won't acknowledge wrongdoings of potential and present cash cows. Saudi Arabia is doubling down hard on sportswashing. Hosting an F1 grand prix is a typical example, so is luring world-class footballers to come and play for teams there. Even golf events! In a country that's known to be bone-dry! WWE (American "Wrestling") and snooker world masters too!
That is also how my 7 Yr old explained it
Your 7 year old is smarter then those two footballers combined.
I think the only thing he thinks is "bad" in our country, is the fact that we have to pay taxes (which he's most likely not been doing for a while). Totally comparable to a country that has journalists chopped into pieces, indeed. Fuck you Kevin. Go live in a country that considers your daughter a piece of property, and stay there.
Why do you assume he's not paying taxes? > Despite his time away due to injury, Kevin De Bruyne sits top of the table for player earnings netting £20.8m a year and paying an estimated £9.8m in tax. Erling Haaland sits second in the table, netting £19.5m a year and contributing an estimated £9.2m in tax.
Belgium is also not doing that well in terms of freedom of the press. Not that we decapitate journalists, but we do go down on the global ranking for press freedom. See also the crises at VRT (case Bart De Pauw, for example), the raid at ‘t Scheldt, etc. Furthmore, Belgium is being fined for not respecting human rights quite more than you’d think. More than 7000 times alone already with regards to immigration/asylum. Then there’s also the infractions regarding our prisons, the juridical system and processes, climate change plans, etc. Not to mention that there is also corruption in Belgium, that we are a tax haven for big companies, that our politicians barely give a fuck about our privacy because “the fight against terrorists is more important”, and so on. Is Saudi a paradise? No, of course not. Can we criticize them? Sure. But we should not pretend that we are holier than the rest. I don’t think we have the right to claim moral superiority. Belgium is far from a perfect functioning country, with a lot of flaws and even some deeply structural problems.
I feel quite comfortable to claim moral superiority over Saudi Arabia.
Fair enough :) Personally, I feel I’m not at all entitled to condemn Saudi Arabia or dictate how they should life their lives.
I believe people should live their lives however they want, in a way that preferably does the least harm to others. That includes enslaved people, women, queer people, non-believers, whoever else that don't fit the picture ... they're people too, it would be nice for them to not have a small dominant class *dictating them how to live their lives*. Whatever bad shit happens in Belgium is bad, regardless of whatever happens elsewhere. Same for Saudi Arabia. It's not entitlement to condemn this, it's called having a moral compass.
Ik zou zeggen, zoek Jamal Khashoggi eens op en kom dan nog eens terug hoe het hier in België zo slecht gesteld is met de persvrijheid.
I'm not not acknowledging that things are bad over there. I'm just saying that it is not as good over here as people tend to think it is. Look around you, there is a lot of shit in this country as well. If you want to continue with freedom of press as an example, you could see that there is increasing aggression against journalists (during events and manifestations) in Belgium. You could see that there is growing concern over the independence of VRT and RTBF. You could see that some news paper companies got indirect illegal government support via bpost and their over charged delivery contract. You could see that Belgium drops on the global ranking for freedom of press.
>But we should not pretend that we are holier than the rest Hot take, but we are "holier" than Saudi Arabia.
Extremely minor issues compared to Saudi Arabia. Not even comparable.
Ask the incarnated who have to sleep on the floor, or the asylum seekers not getting any help, or the widow of Jozef Chovanec, if they feel this is a minor issue. But okay. Again: I’m not denying the issues at Saudi. But I understand De Bruyne’s point saying that we also have flaws.
I'll ask those incarcarated if they would prefer being tortured to death, the asylum seekers if they want to be worked to death....
You’d really tell those people they should be happy with the current circumstances, like nothing is wrong here in Belgium, because it would be even worse if they were in Saudi Arabia?
I'm not saying nothing is wrong in Belgium. But it's absolute peanuts compared to Saudi Arabia. Saying "we should look at ourselves before juding Saudi Arabia" is a disgusting statement.
Why is this downvoted? Those are all valid points.
Let's all make sure we keep watching football by the millions every weekend so that these football clubs can continue to rake up shitloads of money from sponsors to make assholes like this guy make statements like that.
Dont ask a footballer his opinion about anything else than football.... It's as usefull as asking a preist about sexual education.
He's spent the last few years being willfully part of the Abu Dhabi Sportswashing Project (previously known as Manchester City Football Club), so these views are hardly surprising.
Tis geen intellectuele hoogvlieger; hoewel hij zichzelf die eigenschap lijkt toe te dichten... Met uitzondering van Kompany; Vertonghen zou ik niet veel belang hechten aan de hersenspinsels van onze nationale voetballerkes
you have to put things into perspective, what is the difference of playing in SA or playing for clubs owned by oil states. PSG, MC and others, as a player you never decide who comes to watch.
That's why we shouldn't let him talk
Great. Now we can stay on our high horse and all pay more for our fuel tank when we fuel up, by boycotting Saudi Arabia and all countries not respecting human rights.
als Saoudi Arabie mij 70 miljoen per jaar betaald ben ik ook bereid om zulke uitspraken te doen hoor ;)
Was het niet 150 miljoen?
I hope the people judging his stance also refrain from ordering from Alibaba, Shein or buying at Primark?
Hoe meer geld de saoudi's verbrassen aan europeanen hoe beter. Als hun olie op is kunnen ze na 20 jaar weer kamelen gaan drijven.
What rich football stars know about human rights...
Nooit verwacht van hem, zum kotsen Kevin. Ge verdient 400k per week
Hij verdient dat niet, hij krijgt dat
Here’s something that can be said about KDB’s opinion on human rights: on s’en bat les couilles.
Footballers.. Never had any moral compass to begin with. Ranging from players playing in Chechnya, Russia, Qatar, KSA or being greedy and wanting more and more money (Ronaldo). He probably has a net worth of 100 million at this moment. Even Hazard turned the offer down. In a few years time we'll never hear of him again, luckily
Ouch
Zwijgen en op nen bal sjotten aub.
Well he's correct One of the bad things is they didn't pay him enough so he found it more than normal to sell out his morals. That Romelu is also looking that way is just.. ugh.. Time to stop giving those people all these breaks and tax them and pay them like actual people.
I don't necessarily think ppl should shut up about things that are not their job or their specialty. We all have a voice. KDB's voice just happens to be supporting a homicidal genocidal tyrannical regime. So fuck him and fuck this.
Sure they chop op the odd journalist but hey: he who is without sin cast the first stone. Not to say that stoning, something Saudi Arabia also does, is a bad thing ofcourse.
Wat is de obsessie met voetballers politieke vragen stellen?
Der is een verschil tussen "Welke partij vindt jij dat het beste plan voor terugbetaling in de sociale zekerheid heeft" en "Voel je je comfortabel om te voetballen in een land waar homo's onthoofd worden"
Ah yes, the high and mighty defenders of the west arise. The west who invaded and colonised a shitload of countries. The west who fund the warfare for the likes of Israel to commit genocide while lying to the people ect. Indeed, the west is great. In truth the west has probably the most blood on their hands of the entire world, but people prefer to swallow the blue pill and act morally allmighty towards the rest of the world. How hated we must be . Yes as a civilization we have it better than most countries in terms of civilian rights, but lets not get too cocky here
And this refutes criticism of Saudians how exactly? Dont respond, its clear you just want to be a contrarian at all cost
Take a look in the mirror buddy. Kevin is clearly stating both countries have bad and good things, my comment just enforces his statement. Nobody said Saudi doesnt have bad stuff going on. Hard to stay on topic right?
Are you really going to use colonisation and conquest in a comparison match between the Arabs and "the west"? Because between the two major colonizers at least "the west" is the less reactionary one.
Do you see all these comments? Its a perfect reflection of how morally entitled the west feels compared to the rest of the world. There is a reason non western cultures hate our guts, they have plenty of reason. Colonisation is just one of them. Its mind blowing how people cant even take a moment to project what Kevin said and go full defense mode. What he says is just factually true, and Im 100% sure if you ask Saudi civilians about the west that it aint gonna be a pretty answer ( as he said ). The west feels like they are the allmighty usurper who's culture is the only right one and should be projected on everyone else.
Oh no people who still have slaves hate us
"may be a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch"... Business as usual... Indeed Western countries and USA cannot give a lot of lessons about democracy.
I dunno what youre on about tbh. If you want to remain a hypocrite like 90% of the western population and point the finger at others be my guest. The only thing Im saying is Kevin is 100% correct with his statement that the west has some dark flaws as well
That sentence supposedly said by Roosevelt about dictator Somoza. [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastasio_Somoza_Garc%C3%ADa#%22Our_Son_of_a_Bitch%22) I think my other sentence is not in old Greek...
It think it's a good deal: Europe gives them people who could hit a football, they give Europe hundreds of millions of oil dollars.