Joe Lycett finally gets a response from David Beckham - and he's sharing it tonight
Watch: Joe Lycett shares Got Your Back trailer for David Beckham special
Joe Lycett has revealed he has finally got a response from David Beckham about the Qatar World Cup controversy that saw the comedian pretend to shred £10,000 in protest.
Lycett had repeatedly asked Beckham to reconsider his deal to promote and support Qatar's hosting of the World Cup, asking him to take account of their human rights record and the fact that being gay in Qatar is illegal.
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In one stunt, he claimed to have shredded £10,000 in protest at Beckham's involvement, but later admitted it was fake money and that he had donated the same amount to LGBTQ+ charities.
Now, Lycett has tweeted that he had finally had a statement from Beckham's team, and will share what it is in tonight's special episode of Joe Lycett's Got Your Back on Channel 4.
He tweeted on Thursday: "UPDATE: David Beckham’s team have issued my programme with an exclusive statement, which will be broadcast tonight as part of my Got Your Back special at 9pm on @channel4"
But the comedian added he would not be able to give his own opinion, saying: "As far as we are aware this is the only statement he or his team have given to any outlet regarding his involvement in Qatar. I have been advised that legally I cannot give my opinion on it, so you’ll have to make up your own minds."
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He continued: "We also speak to some LGBTQ+ football teams and Dr Nasser Mohamed, the first openly gay Qatari, who Beckham blocked on Instagram. We also reunite some of the cast of Footballers’ Wives lol.
"I’d like to thank the Got Your Back team and the team at Channel 4 for their extraordinary hard work on this project. Here’s a trailer."
Lycett had recently encouraged Beckham to reconsider his position on Qatar again, accusing him of only being an ally to the LGBTQ+ community when it suited him.
Telling Lorraine that Beckham had previously been a "brilliant ally", he said: "For him to now take an extortionate amount of money from a state where it’s illegal to be gay, I would be jailed if I was there, if you’re Muslim there you could face the death penalty for being gay, it’s a real betrayal of what he’d done."
He added: "There’s a lot of brands and people who do this, they pretend to be allies until it doesn’t help them, but he’s emblematic of it.
"I thought I might be able to convince him to change his mind and then that might convince the Qataris to change."
Joe Lycett's Got Your Back airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.