With a looming showdown between New England Patriots field-general Tom Brady and the NFL establishment this Sunday in Houston, Texas, sports fans from the United States can take pride in their favorite category of news making the front pages all weekend.
But now a brand new bombshell has embroiled the U.K. football world, and threatens to rival the Super Bowl for headlines.
Football Leaks, a sports-equivalent of Wikileaks, released a cache of emails from David Beckham in which the beloved former Manchester United and English National Team superstar insults the United Kingdom’s honours committee, admits to chintzy behaviour with his own charities, and even appears to be using his philanthropic work as a tool to achieve Knighthood.
According to the scroll of released email documents, when friend and public-relations advisor Simon Oliveira suggested that the footballer invest 800,000 pounds into a Shanghai dinner for UNICEF, for which Beckham serves as an ambassador, the 41 year-old namesake of Bend It Like Beckham snarled “I don’t want to put my personal money into this cause. If there was no fund, the money would be for me. This (bleeping) money is mine.”
In perhaps the most damning moment, Beckham uses a sexist slur to demean the honours committee, and accuses them of being “unappreciative” for their refusal to grant Knighthood or help fund further charity work. The emails slam classical performer Katherine Jenkins for receiving honours in 2013, as the famous footballer calls her OBE award a “(bleeping) joke.”
Beckham also appears to have used over 6,000 pounds of foundation funds for a flight to an event in Asia.
In a press release this morning, Beckham’s lawyer stressed that the emails had been hacked, manipulated, and published maliciously.
