As the fall out over David Beckham’s ambassadorship of Qatar for a reported £150m rages on (Will Young has now waded in, calling the football star ‘repellent and cowardice personified’) David’s friend and former bandmate of his wife Victoria, Melanie Chisolm, has seemingly had her say.
Speaking to gay publication Attitude – which coincidentally was the first magazine to feature a premier league footballer on the cover with, yes, David Beckham in 2002, and which Joe Lycett shredded as part of his recent stunt – Sporty Spice aimed a not-so-subtle dig at Beckham and FIFA by saying, ‘It’s greed, isn’t it?
‘They can try and spin it that they’re there to make change, that sport can make change. But it’s bullshit, it’s about money. Obviously I’m a huge England supporter, whatever the gender. But it’s hard to get fully behind it when you know where the money’s coming from.’
Mel C has recently won the magazine’s ‘Honorary Gay Award’ for her continued allyship and work with LGBTQIA+ performance collective Sink The Pink; meanwhile, the owner of the publication confirmed a canvas print of Beckham’s cover which had hung in their office ‘proudly for many years’ had been taken down, writing on Twitter, ‘Talking about stuff nobody will talk about is “the way he’s always been, and the way he’ll always be”, David Beckham told us in 2002. Until the Qataris bought his silence 20 years later.’
Elsewhere in her interview, Mel C spoke about ensuring the Spice brand was a safe space for the whole spectrum of their fans.
‘All the Spice Girls have always been aware of the support from the LGBTQI+ community,’ she said. ‘We’ve never taken it for granted. Back then, it was very apparent we had many young gay male fans, including some who hadn’t come out or fully understood who they were. We really quickly wanted to change tack, from screaming about Girl Power, to being about inclusivity.’
It comes after Joe Lycett’s prank made headline news when he called on David Beckham to cut ties with Qatar, host nation of the FIFA World Cup, and donate his fee to LGBTQ+ charities – which was roundly ignored by Beckham and his team, leading to his ‘star to fall fast and heavy’, according to Attitude’s editor Cliff Joannou.
‘Joe Lycett’s prank worked to highlight the flippant attitude David Beckham has to human rights. And what price tag he had in order to turn a blind eye to the corruption that awarded Qatar the World Cup by Fifa.
‘It all amounts to making this year’s so-called “beautiful game” a truly ugly moment for sport.’
Qatar have denied allegations of corruption, telling Reuters,' Despite years of false claims, evidence has never been produced to demonstrate that Qatar won the rights to host the FIFA World Cup 2022 unethically or by means that contravened FIFA’s strict bidding rules.'