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Sidemen Charity Match
Charity football match between YouTubers From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Sidemen Charity Match is a recurring charity football match organised by British YouTube group the Sidemen. Founded in 2016, the event features two teams of influencers contesting a friendly match whilst raising money for various British charities.
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The event has been held on six occasions since 2016: one at St Mary's Stadium, three at the Valley, one at London Stadium, and one at Wembley Stadium. All matches have been livestreamed via YouTube, promoting various charitable causes. In each edition, the seven members of the Sidemen—KSI, W2S, Miniminter, Zerkaa, Vikkstar123, TBJZL and Behzinga—and various affiliated YouTubers compete as Sidemen Football Club,[note 1] whilst various other influencers compete as the YouTube Allstars.
The fourth charity match, held in 2022, is recognised by Guinness World Records for the highest live viewership on a YouTube charity sports match, peaking at over 2.5 million viewers. As of 2025, the events have raised over £8.5 million for various British charities.
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History
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Background
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The Sidemen was founded in 2013 as a YouTube group creating Grand Theft Auto Online content.[1] The six founding members—KSI, Miniminter, Zerkaa, Vikkstar123, TBJZL and Behzinga—were later joined by W2S in 2014.[2] The group frequently collaborated on real-life association football content, as well as through the FIFA video game franchise, and established a content house.[3]
Prior to the first Sidemen Charity Match, five members of the group—all except KSI and Vikkstar123—participated in the inaugural EE Wembley Cup on 8 August 2015 as part of Sidemen United, a team that was established for the match; they lost 5–2 against Spencer FC.[4] The Wembley Cup was held annually for three more years without Sidemen United, although Sidemen members W2S, TBJZL and KSI participated in the 2017 edition as part of Tekkers Town, who lost 6–1 to Hashtag United.[5]
2016: St Mary's Stadium
The inaugural Sidemen Charity Match was held at St Mary's Stadium in Southampton, on 3 June 2016, raising over £110,000 for the Saints Foundation.[6][7] Over 600,000 people watched the livestream on YouTube—a record for YouTube Gaming at the time—and 15,000 people attended the match;[7] the stadium only permitted the Sidemen to fill the stadium to half-capacity.[citation needed] In addition to the seven Sidemen members, notable players included grime musicians Jme and P Money, as well as fellow YouTubers Joe Sugg and ChrisMD.[citation needed] Sidemen FC won the match 7–2, including a hat-trick from Miniminter.[8]
2017, 2018, 2022: The Valley
Three subsequent matches were held at the Valley in Charlton, London.[8] The second match in 2017 raised £210,000 for the NSPCC and the Charlton Athletic Community Trust (CACT).[9] The 2018 edition raised £65,747 for CACT and Young Minds.[10] The YouTube Allstars won the former match 2–0,[11][8] whilst Sidemen FC won the latter 7–1.[11] Notable players across these matches featured Deji, WillNE, Lachlan Power and Caspar Lee.[12]
After a four-year hiatus, the highly-anticipated fourth match in 2022 raised over £1,000,000 for CALM, Teenage Cancer Trust, Rays of Sunshine and Miniminter's M7 Education.[13][14][15] New entrants included MrBeast, LazarBeam, Noah Beck, IShowSpeed, Chunkz, Niko Omilana and GeorgeNotFound.[16] Billy Wingrove and Mark Goldbridge acted as managers, with former Premier League and FIFA referee Mark Clattenburg officiating.[17] Sidemen FC emerged victorious 8–7.[16] The match later secured a Guinness World Record for "most viewers for a charity sports match live stream on YouTube" with 2,558,501.[18]
2023: London Stadium
A fifth match was held on 9 September 2023 at the 62,000-capacity London Stadium,[1] the home stadium of Behzinga's supported team West Ham United.[19] Sidemen FC defended the title with a 8–5 victory over the YouTube Allstars.[20] Rapper Aitch performed for the inaugural halftime show.[21] Debutants included Airrack, xQc, JiDion, Kai Cenat, AboFlah and Jacksepticeye.[22] Max Fosh went viral for his yellow card incident, where he showed referee Clattenburg an Uno "Reverse" playing card.[23] KSI performed Cristiano Ronaldo's trademark "siuuu" celebration when he saved a penalty from IShowSpeed, a prominent Ronaldo fan.[24] The match raised over £2.4 million for CALM, Teenage Cancer Trust, Rays of Sunshine and M7 Education—the same charities as in 2022.[20]
2025: Wembley Stadium
In November 2024, the Sidemen announced a sixth match would be held,[25] later revealing it would take place on 8 March 2025 at Wembley Stadium, the largest stadium in the United Kingdom.[26] The event sold out within three hours after ticket sales went live, drawing 90,000 spectators.[27] The halftime show was performed by rapper AJ Tracey, with KSI also performing "Thick of It".[28] Following a 9–9 draw, the YouTube Allstars won the subsequent penalty shoot-out 5–4.[29] The squad list featured Mark Rober, Logan Paul, CarryMinati and Jynxzi.[30] In a reiteration of his skit from the 2023 edition, Fosh responded to another yellow card from Clattenburg by putting it in a pocket-sized paper shredder.[31] The match raised over £4.7 million for BBC's Children in Need (50%), Sidemen's Bright Side (43%) and M7 Education (7%), and drew in over eight million live viewers.[28][32]
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Match results
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All times are local, GMT (UTC±0)[note 2] or BST (UTC+1)[note 3].
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YouTube Allstars
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2016
Attendance: 15,000
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2017
Attendance: 26,000
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2018
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2022
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2023
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2025
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Records and statistics
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Money raised
Top goalscorers
Key: Bold indicates a Sidemen member.
Guinness World Records
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Gallery
Wembley Stadium prior to the 2025 edition
Inside of Wembley Stadium before the 2025 edition- Sketch saving a penalty from Miniminter during the 2025 penalty shootout
- YouTube Allstars celebrate winning the 2025 Sidemen Charity Match
Notes
References
External links
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