David Beckham has long harboured hopes for a knighthood, yet the honour remains elusive. This year, he was named an ambassador to the King’s Foundation, sparking speculation that the role might enhance his chances.
Despite this, the knighthood wasn’t included in the honours of 2024. The possibility of this prestigious accolade may have been jeopardised by Tom Bower’s tell-all book released over the summer, which portrayed Beckham as “money obsessed” and detailed his efforts to pay minimal UK tax.
This is not the first setback; Beckham’s knighthood ambitions were previously compromised in 2014 when HMRC raised red flags.
Now aged 49, Beckham, who played a key part in England’s attempt to host the 2018 World Cup, also faced backlash for his ambassadorship during the Qatar World Cup in 2022. He reportedly earned a staggering £150million from a decade-long deal, sparking outrage among LGBT+ circles due to Qatar’s stringent stance on same-sex relationships.
In defence, Beckham’s representatives claimed his goal was to leverage sport to create positive change. This did little to soothe critics like comedian Joe Lycett, who lambasted Beckham for what he saw as blatant hypocrisy, reports the Mirror.
Lycett went as far as shredding an image of Beckham from Attitude, a gay lifestyle magazine, and publicly threatened to destroy £10,000 unless Beckham cut ties with the event – a stunt that concluded with the comedian seemingly carrying out his promise on camera.
Weeks after a comedian labelled Beckham’s defence as a ‘cop out’, the ex-England captain and current Inter Miami owner was not included in the guest list for a prestigious invitation to Buckingham Palace, yet again. Earlier, Beckham had reportedly been embroiled in a string of heated emails with his long-standing PR guru Simon Oliveira, following another apparent snub that is said to have emerged in leaked emails from 2017.
Despite being a leading figure in promoting London’s Olympics bid and dedicating significant time to charitable efforts like UNICEF, there was anticipation that Beckham would receive a knighthood in 2014. However, it’s alleged that his links to a controversial film finance scheme seen by HMRC as a form of tax avoidance put a halt to those plans.
The Ingenious Media scheme had individuals investing under no suggestion of impropriety, and allegedly in an email leak in 2017, Beckham assured Oliveira: “Everything is above board.”
The next year saw him fork out a whopping £12.7million in tax, landing him and wife Victoria on the Sunday Times Tax List as the 49th amongst the largest taxpayers in the UK.
Even though he was conspicuously absent from the honours roll in 2014, the leaked emails, claimed to be Beckham’s, were made public by Football Leaks, often thought of as the sporting world’s answer to Wikileaks. In these messages, Beckham is alleged to have blasted into a furious diatribe about the oversight, labelling the committee ‘bunch of c***s’ and denigrating the honours process as a “f**king joke”.
Beckham reportedly vented his frustration over the honours system, expressing distaste with the decision-makers: “I expected nothing less… Who decides on the honours? It’s a disgrace to be honest and if I was American I would of (sic) got something like this 10 years ago… It’s p***ed me off those old unappreciative c***s.”
He allegedly continued, stating bluntly: “Unless it’s a knighthood f**k off”. Furthermore, David is claimed to have criticised classical singer Katherine Jenkins’ OBE award, questioning her contributions: “Singing at the rugby and going to see the troops plus taking coke. F**king joke”.
In defence of Jenkins, her spokesperson stated that her OBE was bestowed for services to music and charity, highlighting that she had “courageously publicly admitted” past cocaine use as a student in her early twenties. Her manager, Professor Jonathan Shalit, reinforced this position in an interview with The Sun, remarking: “I say Katherine was awarded an OBE for her services to music and charity.”
And regarding her previous drug use, he said: “With regards to the taking of coke which Katherine has courageously publicly admitted with great honesty – this was when she was in her early 20s still studying, over a decade before she was awarded her OBE and started her recording career.”
David Beckham has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 2003 and in 2015 he established his 7 fund for the charity. Following leaked emails, a spokesperson for UNICEF remarked: “David has given significant funds personally.”
At the time, Beckham’s representative addressed to the allegations of the ‘doctored’ emails to the Daily Mail, stating: “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.”
Moreover, dealing with the fallout, a close friend confided to The Mirror that although Beckham regretted the messages, they were sent “in the heat of the moment”.
“Genuinely, he wasn’t as vitriolic as that, but you do say some things in private and in the heat of the moment,” the acquaintance revealed. “To be honest, he does feel that he has given so much to his country. And sometimes you say things in private that anyone would say and you don’t really mean it. While he was frustrated in those emails, he was over it the moment he sent them. Getting the knighthood is not what his work is about. He doesn’t care if he gets a knighthood or not.”
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