David Beckham issued an official statement after Joe Lycett's money-shredding threats came to fruition.
The comedian went public with his threat to shred £10,000 of his own money if David Beckham refused to drop his World Cup deal with Qatar. The football star came under fierce scrutiny for signing a multi-million-pound contract with the host nation despite their troubling record on human rights.
Joe gave David seven days to respond to his threats, stating he would also no longer be able to identify as a "gay icon," referencing Qatar's anti-LGBT stances.
READ MORE: Joe Lycett's £10k shredding stunt brought in £3m worth of coverage
The ultimatum went out a week before the World Cup's launch but saw silence from David's team. Subsequently, Joe used a wood chipper to shred the £10,000 cash into pieces in a follow-up video but he managed to pull the wool over the public's eyes in secret.
After a few days of backlash, with many saying it would've been more beneficial for him to donate the cash to charities, Joe revealed that is indeed what he did and everything up to this point was publicity. He received almost £3million worth of coverage to highlight his cause.
Though we were led to believe David's team never made a response, it was revealed in Channel 4's Got Your Back programme that his team did in fact reach out. Following a scathing recap of the situation, including behind-the-scenes footage of how he pulled the stunt off, Joe shared David's statement.
It said: "David has been involved in a number of World Cups and other major international tournaments both as a player and an ambassador and has always believed that sport has the power to be a force for good in the world.
"Football, the most popular sport globally has a genuine ability to bring people together and make a real contribution to communities. we understand that there are different and strongly held views about engagement in the Middle East but see it as positive that debate about key issues has been stimulated directly by the first World Cup in the region.
"We hope these conversations will lead to greater understanding and empathy toward all people and that progress will be achieved."
The statement only arrived after the seven-day countdown and money-shredding video went live. Joe said: "I've been told by our lawyers that I can't make any comment about that message."
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