![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/fifa-world-cup-money-over-morals-in-david-beckhams-bid-to-become-first-football-billionaire/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1668568118006.jpg&description=ANALYSIS: 'I love being in the middle of nowhere," David Beckham declares as he looks out from beneath a Bedouin tent across the Qatari landscape. Here in Qatar, Beckham has even been asked to sell sand in the desert. It is among a number of heavily scripted lines that the former England captain delivers in a video that features on the Qatar Airways flights transporting tens of thousands of people to Doha for the World Cup. "It's one of the best spice markets I've ever been to," says the man who married a Spice Girl, before suggesting that "the modern and the traditional fuse to create something really special" in this Gulf state. While estimates of exactly how much the Qataris are paying Beckham to be an ambassador for this tournament seem to range from £10 million to £150 million over 10 years, the 30-minute film provides a measure of what he is prepared to do for money. Clearly, cash is important to him. This year's Sunday Times Rich List estimated the value of the Beckham family fortune at £425 million, and there are some who believe that he is driven by a desire to more than double that number and become the first billionaire footballer. But this deal with the Qataris appears to be coming at a heavy reputational cost, judging by the criticism he has received for assisting the World Cup hosts in what amounts to a £200 billion exercise in sportswashing. At the weekend, the comedian Joe Lycett issued Beckham with an ultimatum, informing him in a social media post which has now had more than three million views that his "status as a gay icon will be shredded" unless he terminates his arrangement with Qatar before the tournament begins on Sunday (Monday NZ time). Lycett, an LGBT campaigner, points out that homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, where it is "punishable by imprisonment and, if you're Muslim, possibly even death".David Beckham speaks with Sir Jackie Stewart on the grid before the F1 Grand Prix of Qatar in 2021. Eric Cantona tore into his former Manchester){kind=link}
“I love being in the middle of nowhere,” David Beckham declares as he looks out from beneath a Bedouin tent across the Qatari landscape. Here in Qatar, Beckham has even been asked to sell sand in the desert.
It is among a number of heavily scripted lines the former England captain delivers in a video that features on the Qatar Airways flights transporting tens of thousands of people to Doha for the World Cup. “It’s one of the best spice markets I’ve ever been to,” says the man who married a Spice Girl, before suggesting that “the modern and the traditional fuse to create something really special” in this Gulf state.
While estimates of exactly how much the Qataris are paying Beckham to be an
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