Wealthy footballers asking fans to donate and save a child's life

[Eastie77Returns]

A premier league footbal club in my area has posted pictures of a little boy who is very ill meeting players before a recent game. He urgently needs life saving treatment that costs hundreds of thousands of pounds. The pictures are lovely and he's clearly having an amazing time kudos to those players. The players and club have sent out an appeal to fans, asking everyone to urgently donate money for the child's treatment.

The players in the pictures earn millions a year. Hundreds of people have pointed out in the post comments that if each player in the team donated £10k, an amount they would barely notice, this precious boy would be able to get this treatment. The club itself posts revenue of millions each match day and could cover the cost without blinking. They've spent £100s of millions on new players ffs.

AIBU to not understand this. The manager of the team earns £10 million a year. He has children of his own. I don't understand how you'd sleep at night, leaving a child you've met to die when you have the means at the tip of your fingers to potentially save them? (and it could be done discretely as I understand the club wouldn't want everyone to know).

This is what bothers me- there simply can’t be this idea that people need these treatments funded when we know nothing about them.

a lot of treatments the nhs doesn’t offer is because they’re ineffective or don’t increase quality of life or outcomes. I think people assume the nhs just can’t afford it, but that’s not how decisions are made

can you explain that a bit more? I don’t follow.

say my tax bill is £1m, if I make a £100k donation I can offset the tax- let’s calll it 40%. So my tax bill now (simplistically) £960k. I’ve gained £40k but lost £60k

One man, or one football team, cannot save every child. (Well some men could but they have their money and power by being scumbags not kicking a ball about) We as a society could. It's easy to say it's just one child. But it's not. It's one of many. How can you save one and not the next one.

I do agree that there is a certain hypocrisy in wealthy people asking ordinary people to donate; but I suppose that fundraising depends on us being too polite to talk about money: let people pay donations, whether they can afford them or not. Many wealthy people are astute enough not to talk about their wealth; only certain people would think "that celebrity could afford to pay". Some rich people become rich by being very careful about what they spend money on, and not telling people that they are rich.

YANBU. For the same reason, it infuriates me when wealthy TV presenters tell us how we should save use less fuel in the cost of living; when billionaire Sunak shrugged "Well, we can't help everyone after we destroyed their businesses and livelihoods"; and Johnson said "I've paid the £50 fine, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease can you stop talking about Partygate?"

Some players make significant charitable donations and often have specific foundations. Many overseas players direct their funds to the poor communities where they grew up . If we dismissed all celebrity fundraising that would kill off comic relief , children in need and every charity backed by a member of the Royal Family

Pretty sure they are also donating to various causes and just want to raise awareness for this particular child although I’m not familiar with the case. It’s not down to them to pay for it but they can use their popularity to help raise awareness

I guess if they were to do that for every sick child who supports their team then they would be handing over most of their wages.

But the players/club should at least donate something to an appeal they're so supposedly connected to and caring about.

I guess you could say the same for multimillionaires who appear on charity telethons and fundraising events. They're getting paid, but they're not actually putting their hand in their wallet.

I wonder how much money Bob Geldross actually gave of his own money to those crisis hit famine victims in the 80s?

I dont know the particular story

But honestly, couldn't agree more. I will never listen when a celeb bangs on asking people for money

You get paid millions to kick a ball while the rest of us can barely afford the food we need 🙄🙄

Precisely. The company reduces their tax bill but the donated amount is bigger than the tax saved. I think corporation tax is 25% so in your example they pay out 100k but save in tax 25k. Net payment out is 75k.

They cannot cover everything that's the point. Think how many people ask them.

It's tricky - my friend's husband is a professional footballer and he just constantly gets hounded for money from people, and often it's really distressing stories etc. His agent advised him to not give money, but offer time if he wants to, so he will maybe send a signed football shirt, or once or twice has shared a fundraising page on social media, but typically he ignores them which he feels really torn about. He has donated significant amounts in the past to ones he's felt a personal tie to, but it's very much kept under the radar and not publicised.

It's also worth mentioning, maybe not for players who play for Liverpool, or City or United and other top clubs where they're on millions a year, but lower down the league..even though they're making "good money", it's only for a relatively short time. My friend often says her husband's career might only last another three years (he's early 30s now) and then he's unemployed practically and will have to start a new career, whether that's as a coach or manager ( I doubt he'd stay in football) or doing something completely different from scratch. His kids will still only be in primary school even if he retires at 37/38.
They don't just have a blank cheques to hand out.

The probably get asked every week to donate to some deserving cause

Agree. I generally don't tell people who are less well off than me how they should be giving money away to this cause and that cause...

It's poor taste.

They have already donated

Why should the footballers be expected fund the treatment?
They have promoted the cause & I am sure some if not all of them and the club have donated. Many teams promote local causes, many have charities that are associated with the clubs. They can not be expected to give to every thing

I understand what you're saying OP. Problem is the can't do it, if they started funding this boy the flood gates would've opened. They may be earning millions but they won't be able to donate to every person who is going to ask them, knowing they donated to one child.
Also, no one can say if they haven't donated something anonymously for that very reason.

For the information of people on this thread who may not be knowledgeable football fans, many players do donate to charities.

As an example, the England men’s team all donate 100% of their match fees to their own charitable foundation and have done so for more than 20 years. I believe the practice was introduced when Sir David Beckham was captain.

I'm now very on the fence with these types of appeals. A local family took a very sick child for treatment in Singapore, as the NHS wouldn't offer the treatment offered out there. The little one survived, but they've now got a plethora of other conditions as a result of the treatment and spends just as much time in hospital as they did before. They can barely walk due to chronic bone damage, have got multiple organ damage and have stopped growing. They recently had to undergo a complete hip replacement to be able to walk.... I understand the parents desperation but I sadly don't think they've added anything to this kids life other than quantity.

I strongly feel that there are reasons why the NHS don't fund certain therapies because ultimately the lad is the one paying the price for quantity of life over quality. If Great Ormond Street don't use a form of treatment, there's a reason why.

I don't understand where the money comes from! It's surely not just Middle East? I remember from the 1970s (going to age myself now) going to see QPR and seasons tickets were quite reasonable at the time.

Came here to say the same thing!

Bukayo even got an award at the Ballon D'Or for his charitable work. The Arsenal family is superb.

Or turning your question around, do you have any good reason to believe the club and players have already made donations?

Sports washing- money laundering via football clubs.

A big name can help a fundraiser significantly. Nobody is forcing you to donate so why bother contributing to the post

If this is true, people should be ashamed of donating.

There is a fundamental difference between raising awareness and fundraising for charities (where often no amount of money would be enough) and a gofundme for a specific amount for one individual with no oversight.

I’m okay with celebrities raising money for charities and companies facilitating donations. I don’t think a football club should be seeking money for one family though, especially when as OP says they could easily fund it themselves. One charity game would even be enough to fund Harley, at least the punters would get something for their foundation.

And I get why they don’t give money to every cause that asks - but they’ve chosen to spotlight this cause and not others. Surely they’ll get just as hounded to fundraise for the next cause as they would to actually provide the funding - so they’re not even achieved anything by not donating, just keeping their own money.

Haha you don't have any millions. And that selfish attitude is why it needs to be a law and not just hope for basic intelligence in others.