This hasn’t worked out quite as either the Sun or Piers Morgan had hoped.
The whistleblowing operation dubbed ‘Football Leaks’ which disclosed details of personal emails from David Beckham to his chief public relations adviser Simon Oliveira caused something of a furore on Friday night/Saturday morning.
The story was shared across Europe by the likes of L’Equipe, before the Sun and Piers Morgan decided to take advantage of the story to drive the knife into the Manchester United legend. They branded Becks ‘disgraced’ and ‘repulsive’.
But the public weren’t having any of it and fought back. Certainly Morgan’s claim that it would completely change the perception of Beckham was way off the mark. Rather Piers was criticised for being so obviously excited to muddy the ex-England captain’s name.
Now Beckham’s representatives have responded with the following statement, as published by Metro:
‘This story is based on outdated material taken out of context from hacked and doctored private emails from a third party server and gives a deliberately inaccurate picture.
‘David Beckham and UNICEF have had a powerful partnership in support of children for over 15 years. The David Beckham 7 Fund specifically has raised millions of pounds and helped millions of vulnerable children around the world.
‘David Beckham has given significant time and energy and has made personal financial donations to the 7 Fund and this commitment will continue long term.
‘Before establishing the 7 Fund, David had supported UNICEF and a number of other charities over many years, including donating his entire earnings from PSG during his time playing there.
‘David and UNICEF are rightly proud of what they have and will continue to achieve together and are happy to let the facts speak for themselves.’
