The Sidemen: a seven-member YouTube group with one of the largest social media fan bases across the world. Every year, this group of established content creators–who have amassed a collective 146 million YouTube subscribers–organizes a soccer match with some of the biggest names in all of content, all for charity.
The Sidemen Charity Match this year was better, compared to the previous five previous editions, again, set in the iconic Wembley Stadium of the Tottenham Hotspurs and England national team.
Over the same weekend where two of the most premier soccer teams, Manchester United and Arsenal, were playing, it was overshadowed by a group of football amateurs. These creators ensured “all 90,000 tickets for the game sold out in three hours, " the statement added.
The two lineups included many popular and familiar faces in the online content space:
Sidemen FC consisted of JME, Logan Paul, Zerkaa, Miniminter, George Clarkey, Joe Weller, Callux, XQC, LazarBeam, Randolph, KSI, TBJZL, Mark Rober, Behzinga, Manny, Wroetoshaw, JasonTheWeen, Vikkstar123, and MrBeast, with Calfreezy as their manager
YouTube All Stars consisted of Sketch, WillNE, Kai Cenat, Max Fosh, iShowSpeed, ChrisMD, Angryginge, Theo Baker, CarryMinati, Chunkz, Fanum, Lachlan, Danny Aarons, Stable Ronaldo, Jynxzi, Niko Omilana, Deji, with TheBurntChip as their manager
(Sportskeeda)
These names all competed in what can only be described as an action-packed match. More than two million were estimated to have streamed the game live on YouTube (New York Times). The game was anything but well-coordinated. Wild tackles, ridiculous mishaps, and some serious saves by Man of the Match Sketch in goal were some of the highlights of the game.
In one case, Max Fosh of the YouTube All-Stars, who had previously used an ‘Uno Reverse Card’ on a yellow card, brought a shredder to shred a booking in this edition. Through 90 frenetic minutes and countless scenes watched and to be rewatched millions of times was evidence of yet another successful showing, yet the game was undecided–nine goals apiece.
Some of the biggest storylines of the game were those who had notoriously not scored previously, including Joshua Bradley (Zerkaa) and Darren Watkins Jr. (iShowSpeed). However, both of these individuals had moments of glory, the latter providing the game-winning goal on the last shot in the penalty shoot.
As a whole, this massive event had nothing short of blockbuster entertainment, even having its own halftime show of AJ Tracey, as well as KSI–infamous for being the artist behind the viral “Thick Of It” song. The main purpose of this event, however, came to the numbers. Several charities in the UK received a total of £4,733,004 from viewers–a record-breaking number even by the high standards the creators had set.
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