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).

As others have said, I think celebrities have to be careful about showing what they’ve donated to.

They receive a large amount of these types of requests every single day, and it’s unsustainable to help all. Publicly stating that they’ve helped a person will lead to an increase in requests, and other people who previously asked and didn’t receive will also want to know why X person was helped but not Y person and what satisfactory answer could they really give to that?

I agree with this. Celebs are likely to get several requests for donations/promotions. They are not solely responsible for erasing systemic issues. You have no idea whether they have donated or not and even if they haven't, that's their choice.
And sometimes people do try novel treatments, so again, it should be a personal choice of which cause you want to donate to. Plus the awareness and interest generated because a celeb promotes it provides a huge added value.

Yes. Because they are regularly evidenced as making other donations so it is reasonable to believe the foundation has made a donation to this…you’d be able to contact them and ask and I’m sure they’ll confirm.

Every year the players donate a days wages as a minimum to the foundation, so any donation the club makes can be directly attributed to players.

Tv rights, endorsements, sponsors, merchandise sales.

Someone approached me recently to ask for advice as I’ve worked on a few charity things in the past where ‘names’ are involved. They needed a huge amount, quickly, and basically asked if I could ‘ask’ a certain footballer as he wouldn’t miss it.
It was a huge sum.
Large football clubs tend to have community sections who deal with charitable requests and a lot of footballers have their own charitable foundations.
The comment about how could a footballer on £10 million sleep at night knowing this could could die and this money ‘could’ save him/her? Even at lower income levels in the UK that still makes us some of the richest people in the world by comparison to most. It’s the same principle. If you earn 30k how do you sleep at night knowing a £10 donation to a charity could save a child’s life in a poor nation?
I do know footballers and footballers and football managers are very wealthy and have daft money. A lot of them are actually also very generous behind-the-scenes, too, as are their clubs. But they are also inundated with requests.
The best way I’ve ever seen to raise money that quickly is to have a feature on BBC Breakfast. For some reason that seems to smash through barriers quite quickly and raises funds rapidly. Every time I’ve seen a piece in there and gone to donate it is very busy, very quickly and you will often getting people giving very large donations anonymously.
I think we have become a bit jaded with celebs ‘asking’ us for money.

Same with millionaires Coleman and Tenant emotionally blackmailing us with the clean water for Africa. Pair of shameless nobs.

I think you are referencing a completely different child/situation.

The child I’m referring to does not require spinal surgery, they have stage 4 cancer.

I think that performative charity gestures can make people uneasy. On the Ellen DeGeneres Show, during one of Ellen’s recurring celebrity quiz segments where brands would sponsor trivia rounds for charity donations.
In this moment, Ellen tells actor Kunal Nayyar (best known for playing Raj on The Big Bang Theory) that Ulta Beauty would donate $1,000 to breast cancer research for every correct answer he gave during the game.
Instead of just jumping into the quiz, Kunal pauses and asks:
“Can’t you just donate it no matter what?” That stuck with me.

For the family or any other charitable cause that manages to get the backing of a celebrity or well known face, it can be a game changer in spreading the word and raising awareness of a condition and vital funds.

I can see where you're coming from with an appeal that's so time sensitive. My fear would be that the badmouthing that the footballers get from people in this case will make it less likely that they'd be up for promoting any future fundraising campaigns.

It can feel distasteful when someone who's considerably wealthier than me is begging me for money.

I still donate to charities and causes and fundraising appeals. I also volunteer and donate blood and I'm on the organ donor list and bone marrow list.

It's really hard to get celebrities advocates secured.

The reach that a premier league football club can bring this campaign is huge and really valuable.

It shouldn't be any of our business how much those footballers choose to donate to anything.

Fair point. Still plenty of poverty in Africa i believe 🤨

Whatever it is, we have the choice to give or not. 🤷‍♀️

Most clubs have their own foundations for charitable help and many of the players are involved with supporting various charities. My own club regularly have kids who are unwell or disadvantaged as mascots and they are given a special day out. As already mentioned England players donate their match fees as well.
Maybe they have donated privately to the little boy? Hopefully the publicity will raise awareness and encourage more people to donate.

It's a well known fact that the people who donate the most are the ones that can afford it then least.

Season tickets are often bought by those with lower incomes too...

It is utter hypocrisy to live a life of luxury like that and then ask footy fans to donate.

I’m always quite wary of judging people’s financial situations because it’s all relative. I’m sure that many at the club will already have donated, but if those footballers are living quite close to their means (how many of them are living in a 3bed semi and driving a second hand Citroen Picasso?) and if they’re investing for their future, is it wise for them to become known as the footballers who will finance children’s life saving medical treatments? How fair is it that they finance this child, and the second child, but not the third, fourth or fifth child? Where do you draw the line? Would you downgrade your home, car or future holidays, or dip into your pension pot to support a good cause?

Also, would the club have shareholders? Who might not agree with their returns going to finance children’s medical care instead of being paid back to them. It’s not just the club’s money, is it? I don’t know anything about football clubs so someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I’d guess they pay out quite a bit of cash. Do they have tens of thousands just sitting about waiting for the right person to come along?

While I agree its pennies to the players. I think its unreasonable to expect them to pay for it. If they help one out of their own pockets, how are they supposed to decide who else they should or shouldn't be helping? There are lots of children who need help. Footballers can't pay for everyone. A line has to be drawn. Donating anonymously doesn't raise awareness. Fundraising as a whole is more effective to raise awareness and raise funds.

Plenty of high earners already do a lot for charities and other causes. If you can't afford to or don't want to donate then keep moving but no need to put people down for raising awareness and trying to help in a different way

Sadly they can't help everyone straight up. There are many others out there in desperate need too. High earners shouldn't have to be the ones to decide which child is worthy of their personal help. Fundraising is the best way.

This. Same when you are on a flight home and they ask for money for their “chosen charity”. No EasyJet, put the money in yourself!

There some treatments not available on the NHS.

It's always the stingiest, grabbiest, entitled low class people who use footballers as an excuse for not giving away a penny of their own money to people in more need than them.

I don’t know much about this case but I remember feeling cheesed off when Sophie Dahl made an appeal on Radio 4 for the public to donate to renovate/conserve her grandfather’s writing hut in the garden of his house at Great Missenden.

I’d have thought that the Ronald Dahl estate could fund the restoration of a shed!

Great response. They could cover the amount themselves (and have likely contributed), but using their platform to raise awareness can have a much bigger impact than simply donating themselves.

They usually have a foundation that is attached to the club. The club itself may make a regular donation to its foundation but lots of the money comes in from fundraising using the clubs name and players.

My sister works for a foundation for a football club and the finances are run entirely independently of the club itself, even though the foundation is ‘part’ of the club and endorsed by it.

I’ve seen a few shows where the person has lost but they’ve donated anyway. At the end of the day they were willing to donate so why would they decide not to just because someone got a question wrong.

I always think this with Comic Relief and Children in Need to be honest. If each millionaire involved donated 100k, or even 50k to be frank but no, they beg we paupers for money instead.