David Beckham is in the middle of a massive hacking scandal. First they came for Hillary Clinton, and I was like “Why is this a thing?” Then they came for the DNC and I was like “John Podesta seems like a really nice guy.” And now they’re coming for David Beckham and I’m like, “Oh, he really cares about being knighted? Why is this shocking?” Seriously, hackers, DO BETTER. Hack Donald Trump. Hack Steve Bannon. Hack Kellyanne Conway. Hack David Duke. Hack Vladimir Putin. Hack someone who actually has some f–ked up secrets. So what are David Beckham’s secrets? Allegedly, he ramped up his work with UNICEF in the hopes of getting a knighthood… which he still hasn’t gotten, by the way. He only has an OBE, not a KBE. Allegedly, he was asked to speak out on Scotland’s independence vote. That’s about it. And even then, Beckham denies that the emails are legit. His spokesperson issued this statement:
“This story is based on outdated material taken out of context from hacked and doctored private emails from a third-party server and gives a deliberately inaccurate picture. David Beckham and UNICEF have had a powerful partnership in support of children for over 15 years. The David Beckham 7 Fund specifically has raised millions of pounds and helped millions of vulnerable children around the world. David Beckham has given significant time and energy and has made personal financial donations to the 7 Fund, and this commitment will continue long term.
Before establishing the 7 Fund, David had supported UNICEF and a number of other charities over many years, including donating his entire earnings from PSG during his time playing there. David and UNICEF are rightly proud of what they have and will continue to achieve together and are happy to let the facts speak for themselves.
So what was in those emails? The Sun broke the story, but you can see a good summary here at the Daily Mail. I mean, some of the emails – which could have been doctored, to be clear – are truly damaging, especially when Becks is acting bratty about UNICEF covering his travel costs and more. But mostly the emails seem bizarrely needy, like Beckham has just been obsessed with getting an honor which really doesn’t mean that much in the grand scheme of things.
As for the Scottish independence thing, allegedly Beckham was told that if he publicly backed a vote against Scottish independence, that would help his campaign for a knighthood. Beckham did issue a statement (“What unites us is greater than what divides us. Let’s stay together.”) four days before the Scottish vote. And now the Scots are pissed because they feel like Beckham sold them out for a knighthood… which, again, he hasn’t gotten.
You know what’s weird? I honestly thought Beckham was already knighted. How has he not been knighted at this point? Andy Murray has been knighted and Murray is more than a decade younger than Beckham.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
He wasn’t knighted because he was doing something dodgy tax wise and this was red flagged. The hacked emails make him look incredibly shallow and vain and definitely damage the Mr. nice-guy reputation
The honours committee have to check HMRC (and other agencies) for any potential embarrassment. Beckham was red flagged for involvement in dodgy investment schemes. I’m more bothered about UNICEF paying for a private plane for him to attend an engagement tbh, terrible waste of money.
Victoria’s OBE should’ve been rescinded after she blabbed before the official announcement.
“make him look incredibly shallow and vain and definitely damage the Mr. nice-guy reputation”
Maybe that happened when he was constantly posing in his underwear. I find him pretty seedy given all his cheating stories. Also, his interviews are a snoozefest and show him to be dumb and dumber rolled into one. Very vain and very, very shallow man.
Yeah, I don’t understand how these emails are “meh” to the author. If they are legit, they show him as a petty, greedy bi0tch who uses charity to raise his profile.
He’s always been needy about his image so nothing new there about him being seen as some sort of hero. Thou to be fair he has done a LOT for charities over the years. The only way he would have gotten a knighthood was if he captain England to a World Cup win, something he failed consistently to do.
Also not surprised about him being bratty over money – the Beckhams are like the Middletons, tight with their own money and expect others to pick up the tab.
They are much richer than the middletons though, right?! I would assume…
Yes they are but the nouveau riche people are as tight as they come – just because the can afford it doesn’t mean the can.
They’re very rich but they have high overheads and a big staffing team, and I think Victoria’s brand is bleeding money, which David picks up. There’s a story every other week on the Daily Fail about the VB brand losing millions of pounds every year and trying to get into the China market in vain.
Egos. It’s all about egos at the end.
And the hubris. Lots of it!
A celebrity did charity work for his image and not because of the kindness of his heart?!?! OMG I am so surprised.
But seriously, he’s like 10 times more famous than Murray, why hasn’t he gotten a knighthood?
Weird right? He was even invited to Will and Kate’s wedding!
Bono is Irish, so he cannot get a knighthood. Getting one is a really really really big deal to Brits.
Bono has an honorary knighthood. Prominent Americans with honorary knighthoods/damehoods include Angelina Jolie, George HW Bush, Steven Spielberg, Bill & Melinda Gates, etc.
Probably because, regardless of levels of fame, Andy Murray is much better at his sport than David Beckham was at his. Murray has achieved things in tennis that no British man ever has before- Beckham never came close to something like that. I also presume there’s nothing dodgy about Murray that had been flagged behind the scenes :p Funnily enough Muzz came out for Scottish independence, so it didn’t affect him.
there were people who achieved less and got one so obviously Beckham was an above average player (so really good for an english one) but its not what kept him from getting one. its the tax dodging. dont know if its true but the authorities probably know more about it. even if they did make a mistake, not giving someone a knighthood is hardly discrimination.
Football is a team sport and so there are more professional players, and Beckham at his peak was in the top 5 players in the world. And Bobby Charlton was knighted
As others have said, it was the tax dodging. The Honours Committee does due diligence on this sort of thing so that they don’t knight or dame someone who is then found to have put all their money in dodgy offshore tax avoidance schemes. And, unfortunately for Beckham, football is even worse for this than most other sports or celebrity tax-minimising vehicles. That’s why they all invest in films that never get made or register companies in tax havens. Your average Premier League footballer probably pays less tax than the guy who teaches your kid phys ed.
But either way, he hasn’t achieved (for British football) what Andy Murray has achieved (for British tennis) or, say, Mo Farah and Chris Hoy have achieved (for athletics and cycling).
Bobby Charlton (and, for that matter, Bobby Moore et al) was knighted because he won the World Cup. As Murray has won grand slam titles and Murray and Hoy and Farah have won multiple Olympic gold medals. Beckham hasn’t achieved that level.
And I say that as someone who, while acknowledging that he can be a bit precious and brattish, rather likes him.
But wouldn’t winning Grand Slam titles be the equivalent of winning the Championship League? And Davis Cup would be the equivalent of the World Cup? so I guess Murray got the knighthood for the Davis Cup?
There is also Bono, a tax dodging anti-poverty campaigner, who criticizes governments around the world for not giving enough, yet he was knighted. So not sure there is a link.
Locke – no, because no British man had won a grand slam for something like 70 years before Murray won. And a similar amount of time since a British man had been world number one at tennis. For Beckham, he’d done nothing over club level – ie for his country. He never won a Euro or a World Cup nor a Ballon d’Or nor FIFA player of the year. I do think it’s a bit unfair on footballers since their biggest tournaments are at club level really, but them’s the breaks. He brought honour to his clubs, not his country.
(Note that nothing I say here signifies any support for the British honours system by me. It’s as corrupted in its own way as anything else. Just not in Beckham’s case.)
What Sixer said. Beckham is very famous and was an excellent footballer, but not at the same level in his sport as Murray is. Or Chris Hoy or Ben Ainslie or Mo Farah.
Beckham isn’t fit to lace the football boots of the great Sir Bobbys Moore (RIP) and Charlton. Or indeed of Lionel Messi.
Murray was the first British man to win Wimbledon in 77 years… that’s why. Beckham is super famous and popular, but England hasn’t won a World Cup since 1966. I’m also cosigning what the commenter above said about Murray being better at his sport than Beckham is at his. In the past few years, Murray has won three grand slam titles, two olympic singles titles, the Davis Cup, and the ATP final.
If they read some of my emails/texts then they would see some good stuff…who hasnt gone off on an email or text and out of context it always seems worse. I dont think this is a big deal…..
Now Kellyanne Conways emails I would love to see
I’d like to see those too! Why can’t they get Trumps taxes?
This smacks alot like the argument people used when Mel Gibson and Christian Bale were taped screaming at people. “Who hasnt lost their temper and screamed at colleagues”.
Eeh…lots of people. Me, for one! You also wont find me strategising how to use a charity to win personal acclaim, demanding a charity pay my first class tickets to appear anywhere et cetera. This isnt a guy simply grumbling about his boss or his neighbor over email, this is straight up Machiavellian.
British people love their titles!
Anyway, I’m not surprised a celebrity is doing charity for all the wrong reasons, and despite what Piers Morgan says, no I don’t think Brand Beckham is dead.
No that’s a massive generalisation, there are a fair few famous British people who turn Knighthoods down, David Bowie, David Hockney, Peter O’Tool, Pete Townsend, Albert Finney are the most recognisable but there is a whole list on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_declined_a_British_honour
Maybe they don’t like opportunists.
That Scottish deal sucks, I would be pissed too.
My English Lit professor (who reminds me of Ian McKellen) despises the Beckhams and is convinced that QEII doesn’t want a Lady Beckham in her kingdom 😀
Wonky implants and tacky hair haunting her for life!
I don’t want a Lady Beckham either. I was appalled that she got an OBE – never more has the tag “Other Buggers’ Efforts” been so aptly deserved.
My sister in law just got one for nearly 40 years hard work for education in Northern Ireland so there are exceptions!
Oh I didn’t mean to imply that all OBEs deserve that moniker! Many congratulations to your sister-in-law – the honours system has been somewhat corrupted for celebs but works fairly for ordinary folk.
Beckham spoke out for the Remain campaign a few days before the referendum vote, no wonder the DM hates him.
TBH it would surprise me if anyone of his success/profile didn’t want a knighthood.
Embarrassing for them… Could be mainly vb that really wants it , but who knows
Interesting… he’s whining about a knighthood but it must be his wife who wants it?
He’s an ok guy but has always been a bratty hothead, his angelic image is a joke.
She made him do it because she is a social climber who wants to be posh in real life. Becks is just a working class kid who made some money and tries to give back with childrens charities.
/sarcasm
I don’t think I usually make sexist comments. I’ve been reading about vb on Lainey a long time and she does seem to wear the pants and have more ambition. I’ve only seen one interview with them the Ali g one. Like I said who knows
Yeah he’s acting bratty but it’s his wife’s fault. How refreshing. NOT
Victoria could easily become a Dame in her own right, assuming she wasn’t flagged as part of the tax dodge too.
She didn’t need him to be a part of the world’s most famous girl group, she certainly doesn’t need him for this!
Her OBE (blech) was for services to fashion and charity, not music. She’s not exactly the next Dame Vivienne Westwood.
Hacking Beckam’s emails is really NOT the priority right now. Or at any time.
UNLESS there is really something dodgy with tax evasion. Then I want to know and I want it fixed.
I want May’s emails! And the rest of her cabinet would be ice too…
I think some of them leaked (or was it a video??), namely a meetinh she had at the City saying how bad leaving the EU would be…
There is no way that 18 million (!!!) emails were doctored. I truly believe him and Victoria are as vain as the Kardashians. He is not respectable enough to be knighted anyways, he needs to build some homes for the poor on his own around the world and then he would earn titles.
Sadly for Becks, I think those emails will make it nearly impossible now for him to ever get his knighthood. It’s messy, and I’d imagine the people awarding that honor would want to avoid that. Plus, you can’t knight somebody who’s whiny and avoided taxes AND used UNICEF to try to get a knighthood. Looks bad!
To be this desperate for a knighthood LOL
It speaks volumes as to who the hackers really are that they prefer to focus their time and effort on celebrities and Dems, and that somehow a lot of truly repellent people go unscathed.
its from football leaks. they are focusing on that obviously. they have published lots of other football related stuff.
I don’t think you got my point.
Absolutely. Such a waste of time and effort. It is idiotic to “hack” these trivial celebrities when there is information of substance out there worth unveiling. It’s so frustrating.
Football organizations (Fifa I think) were getting away with lots of crap, including tax evasion (see Messi) and that is a huge deal. So I’m afraid you did not get QuenB’s point either, in a way if I may say so. It’s akin, on a minor scale, to the panama papers. And you can see the links that Becks has with Unicef (the article only talks anout knighthood but there is more), that is, with major institutions and $$= entitlement. Agreed, I still would like to see El Trumpito hacked, that’s for sure, and his tax papers. Next step? Certainly hope so.
My point being, there’s a huge discrepancy between organizations that are being specifically hacked, and it’s fairly obvious that it’s got a political bend to it. In the scheme of things, there’s far more I’d rather see come to light than FIFA’s multitude of sins (because I don’t know if you’ve noticed, we already KNOW about them and it’s more of a question of inaction rather than lack of knowledge).
But more so than that, you (and the other person you reference) completely and totally missed my point. What folks often forget is WHO hackers frequently are – disaffected white men. There’s a reason why we’re not seeing Anonymous go after Trump, Ryan, Putin, or any of those clowns, and it’s because they don’t disagree. Look at Wikileaks himself.
Well, there are truly repellent and powerful people in the football world. The governing bodies of this sport are ruled like a mafia. Football leaks, these last months exposed their shameless ways of tax evasions, frauds, the exploitation of young african footballers etc….
Their focus and efforts are where the money is. It’s just that headlines are made with the catchiest names.
It’s not like newspapers/hackers from several european countries woke up one morning decided to focus on Beckham. They wanted to expose one of the most corrupt fields, and ended handling millions of documents. And if in the course of events, some of the golden children, that here in Europe are shoved down our throats as idols or semi gods (Messi Ronaldo and co) are a little scathed, no big deal.
But in the scheme of things in the world, are the football mafia really the first people that you’re going to try to expose? My point is more that there’s a reason why Trump, Putin, Conway et al aren’t being hacked, and it’s because those doing the hacking (and are nominally so concerned about the freedom of information) actually agree with them.
Bridget, hackers aren’t one group with a single agenda/ideology.
What Ravine said. Hackers are often just crims out to make a quick buck. Apparently Beckham and his PR team were blackmailed but refused to pay the ransom, hence the leak – I can’t verify that beyond the crappy Daily Mail, but in any case hacker blackmailers just go for the biggest target with the most to lose and the capacity to pay big $. It’s a numbers game – sometimes it pays off, sometimes not.
Apparently a whole bunch of other emails where he “talks candidly” about his celebrity friends haven’t been released (yet). Now THOSE emails I totally want to read! His PR is dismissing them as “banter”. You know he was totally slagging them off!
Oooh those I want to read. (I’m shameless, I don’t care) As tight as he was with Tom Cruise (are they still?) I bet there’s some good stuff there.
Me too! (also quite shameless)
I’ve never liked him for a variety of entirely valid reasons so the revelation that he’s a petulant, grammar-deficient, knighthood-wanting prat in private is not remotely surprising. And it’s entertaining to watch him and his PR tangle themselves up in knots as they try to minimise the damage to his ‘brand’.
I feel bad for VB though as I like her.
I rather like VB and she’s the one behind the brand – she’s the one with the brains and business savvy in that relationship. David, well he’s never been the brightest spark in the fire – both have always been about having celebrity friends and both love the limelight. He has always been rather douchey.
Why should he get a knighthood? He hasn’t done anything extraordinary. I don’t believe in the honours system it’s outdated and not relevant in modern society.
Ugh. British class system. Who has time for that garbage.
The US has presidential medal of freedom and other awards. All countries do.. I don’t see why this is a class system issue?
Wow, what a dick. I somehow knew there wasn’t much happening in that head of his, but he appears to be vapidly loathsome, so worse than I thought. Gross. Doesn’t say much for Victoria either, if this is the man she has clung to for this long…
Except for the private plane stuff (though that’s sadly not uncommon on the celebrity/charity circuit) I don’t think it’s that big a deal charity-wise. Whatever the reasons for it, it doesn’t negate all the money that’s been raised. I doubt any affected children really care in the end why it was done and neither does UNICEF. Plus, I’m sure these charities see it all the time.
You’ve left out the most vital group of people – the donors, the (non-celeb) people who work hard, year in, year out, to keep the likes of UNICEF afloat and who believe UNICEF’s pledge to direct their hard earned donations to those who need it most. This is not a good look for UNICEF. Their official ‘damage control’ statement is as much to do with them as it is to do with Beckham.
From their website:
“Whether you decide to make a one-off donation or pledge a monthly gift, we promise that the donation you make to Unicef today will be used to help keep a child safe.”
God knows why being adorable isn’t enough for him; he wants respect too? As the potatohead of the Potomac could have told him, it’s almost impossible to self-engineer, much less purchase respect. I know an Earl & Countess who named their labs Posh and Becks and it always cracks me up when they call the doggies in their super upper class accents. Plus a knighthood is hardly an insignia of respect these days, otherwise Cameron’s bagmen and Phil Green wouldn’t have one.
+1
The really interesting bit here is that the hackers tried to blackmail Beckham before they released the emails, and he refused to pay and got an injunction taken out against their publication. Good for him for standing up to blackmail. Here’s a link to a news story about it: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/feb/06/hacked-david-beckham-emails-renders-injunction-worthless
Sure, he looks like a whiny grasping child, but he hasn’t done anything wrong: no abuse, no sexual assault, no racism or discrimination. I’d guess many sports stars and actors are pretty egotistical and whiny in real life. The tax avoidance is unpleasant but karma’s repaying him here, since those schemes are blocking his possible knighthood. Frankly, by entertainment industry standards, this is nothing.
Apart from cheating left, right and centre, on his wife for decades, and denying it, and then using his clout to publicly denounce and shit all over the women he happily cheated with, and who he and his Mgt threatened to sue for outrageous defamation but never actually sued because, well, they couldn’t, could they, because they couldn’t! And then using his wife and kids at every opportunity to deflect from it and keep his ‘nice’ brand going.
So, no, not done anything wrong at all.
Fan girling here but Andy Murray totally deserved his knighthood. His achievements both as an individual player and as an Olympian far outweigh anything Becks did on the pitch.
While Beck’s has a nice guy image (how quickly we forgive and forget!), in terms of sporting achievement he’s just not on the same page in terms of success, especially on a national scale – unlike say Andy or Mo Farrah or Chris Hoy.
Plus *this*:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics/2016/08/15/andy-murray-gives-brilliant-response-to-john-inverdale-gaffe-abo/
https://thinkprogress.org/andy-murray-gets-it-548d69b33663#.6cjjwoojz
Totally agree. Every single word.
That he may have written “would of gotten” probably bothers me more than him being a whiny, ungrateful, little b*stard. Well, actually no, both things are a shame.
Hang in there, Becks, you’ll get one.