Des Kelly's seen through Beckham's cynical self publicity stunt as well.
ARTICLE
Beckham's PSG salary donation wasn't for charity... it was a brilliant PR stunt
By Des Kelly
PUBLISHED: 23:24, 1 February 2013 | UPDATED: 23:32, 1 February 2013
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..The concept of charity has changed over the years. It’s not just about giving time or money any more. Quite often it’s about giving ourselves a slap on the back, too.
Many believe they have done their good deed for the day when they pull to the side of the road to let an ambulance pass. They are even vaguely irritated when nobody is there to see their act of generosity.
Obviously, I’m all for charity myself, unless some Home County hippies choose it as the name for their daughter. I do a lot of work for charity, in fact, although I don’t like to talk about it.
Every month I send a donation to a child in Africa, since it’s only right we should think of others. Besides, I was over there in Tanzania a couple of years ago on a climb (for charity, but I don’t like to talk about it) and there is a slight possibility the child may actually be mine.
But it’s not just me out there doing good deeds and not telling you about them. David Beckham does a lot of work for charity, too. The difference is he’s very happy to talk about it. He’s so happy he decided to call an international press conference to tell the world how charitable he is.
Becks sat in front of a battery of camera lenses and said his entire salary at Paris Saint-Germain would go to a local children’s charity. What a noble gesture.
The general reaction was to commend his generosity, which is only proper. Of course it would have been a darn sight more noble if he had just handed over the cash without shouting about it. But that’s not how things are on Planet Beckham.
Nor could people agree on precisely how generous he was actually being. Estimates of his PSG salary ranged wildly from £170,000 per week, down to £100,000. Even so, the millions he was forgoing were not to be sniffed at. It will be enough to change many lives and, yes, he could quite easily have kept the cash for himself.
But it wasn’t so much a donation as money well spent. Beckham couldn’t buy the kind of positive publicity he received afterwards - if we ignore the fact that he actually did.
‘St David’ cried two front-page headlines. ‘Golden Boules’ found its way into a few others. News bulletins treated his press conference as one of the greatest acts of philanthropy of modern times.
Grizzled reporters cooed in appreciation at the tale laid out on a collection plate for them. A few may even have had to dab away a stray tear or two from their laptop as they cast Beckham as the heir apparent to Mother Teresa.
For global branding like that, £2million is peanuts. Amid the cooing and ahh-ing, it seemed almost churlish to point out that Beckham’s contract in Paris lasts just 20 weeks. He wasn’t exactly renouncing all his worldly goods.
If you dared to put the act in its proper context by reminding everyone the footballer also possesses a personal fortune approaching £200million, even without his wife’s earnings, and has long ranked among the top 10 wealthiest sportsmen on the planet, it was regarded as sacrilege.
‘It’s jealousy!’ some cried, when it really wasn’t. It was merely a sense of perspective.
Costly: The PSG shirt with Beckham's name and number are on sale for £73 in the club shop
If you take the relative sums into account, his grandiose announcement in Paris was about the same as a GP’s receptionist in Bracknell calling a press conference to tell the world she was donating 50 quid of her wages to the orphans of Berkshire.
Besides, the main chunk of Beckham’s earnings does not come from a salary. Large sums are siphoned off through commercial deals, merchandising income, image rights and all the associated marketing and advertising opportunities that each new circus generates.
Even before he left Manchester United back in 2003, Beckham’s earnings from football were said to constitute only a third of his general income.
The No 32 Beckham shirts are on sale in the PSG shop at £73 a pop and St David will be getting his share. His stay in France is also too brief to trouble the Parisian taxman, because the contract is shorter than the 183 days per annum that would make him liable, but expect his accountants to write off his charitable donations somewhere.
Why not. Good luck to him. He has certainly made the most of what he has. Beckham is 37, he runs like a duck, can’t tackle and daren’t head a ball unless he checks with the bosses of whatever hair product he is endorsing first.
But he still strikes a ball impeccably with that sublime right foot, conducts himself as a professional and retains a burning enthusiasm for the game. He can turn a match given the chance, although it’s likely to be from the bench. It is also worth noting that underneath all the hoopla he is essentially a charming chap.
So, just as Beckham wasn’t the devil incarnate when dimwits were hanging effigies of him from lampposts after his red card against Argentina in 1998, he isn’t a saint now, either.
Real charity isn’t about throwing cash about that you are well able to afford. Genuine altruism is giving and not expecting anything in return. No applause. No headlines.
The author and journalist Jack London said: ‘A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.’
Beckham’s performance in Paris was like a pop group using the platform of a televised charity gala to plug their new single.
Now you can choose whether you buy into it or not. The people who receive the money certainly won’t care, but let’s not pretend we witnessed some pure and selfless act. Instead, we can be charitable too and say ‘well done’ for pulling off a brilliant PR stunt and doing some good in the process.
