Joe Lycett called out for threatening to shred £10,000 and urged to give it to charity instead

People are calling out Joe Lycett after the comedian threatened to shred £10,000 - rather than give it to charity - if David Beckham doesn't meet his demands.

Lycett, who once legally changed his name to Hugo Boss as a stunt, has offered to donate £10,000 of his own money to charities for queer people in football - but only on the condition that David Beckham promises to pull out of his World Cup ambassadorship.

This year's World Cup is being held in Qatar, which the comedian has described as 'one of the worst places in the world to be gay', since homosexuality is illegal punishable by imprisonment.

In his viral video, Joe directly addressed the former Manchester United player, warning him that if he refused to back out of his reported 10 million pound deal, he would shred the £10,000 he had pledged to charity.

"So with that in mind, I'm giving you a choice, if you end your relationship with Qatar, I'll donate this 10 grand of my own money as a grand for every million you're reportedly getting, to charities that support queer people in football," Lycett threatened.

Twitter/@joelycett

"However, if you do not, by midday next Sunday, I will throw this money into a shredder just before the opening ceremony of the World Cup and stream it live on a website I've registered called benderslikebeckham.com.

"Not just the money, but also your status as a gay icon will be shredded, you'll be forcing me to commit a crime."

David Beckham has not yet responded to Lycett's warning, but LADbible has reached out to Beckham's publicist for comment.

Unlike the huge hype that Joe's stunts usually get, fans are unimpressed with his latest move and are calling for him to take it back and donate the £10,000 to charity anyway.

"Don't shred it, loads of people could benefit from that amount of money", tweeted one fan.

Alamy

Another commented: "Please, please, please do not shred £10,000. Donate the money to charity. There are so many people in need at the moment. It would be disgusting if you shred that money."

While a third begged: "Please don't shred the money. That's a lifeline to a small charity."

And a fourth, rather fed up, fan wrote: "Oh p*ss off and put the violin away. You'd rather shred 10k of your money whilst there are people in this country struggling to put food on the table, just to get your point across. I'd love to go Qatar, looks quite nice."

The FIFA World Cup begins on Sunday 20 November and will run until Sunday 18 December.

Topics: David Beckham, Celebrity

Ali Condon

Ali is a journalist for LADbible Group, writing on all things film, music, and entertainment across Tyla, LADbible and UNILAD. You can contact Ali at [email protected].

@alicondon