England squad has donated over £5m in match fees in last decade
Melanie May | 3 July 2018 | News
England’s Gary Neville has spoken out to remind people that the football squad donates all of their match fees to charity, after French player Kylian Mbappé received praise for doing so.
The England squad donate their match fees through the England Footballers Foundation, which was established in 2007 to enable the players to donate both match fees and their time to good causes.
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After Mbappé said “You should not get paid to play for your country” Gary Neville tweeted on 1 July 2018: “Agreed. Every England player has been donating the match fees for 10-15 years!”
So far, they have collectively given over £5 million and made more than 300 appearances. The Foundation is currently in a four-year partnership with The Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK, and is also working with UNICEF, while other charities it has supported include WellChild, Together for Short Lives, Cancer Research UK, Help for Heroes, and The British Forces Foundation.
England’s players are believed to receive a payment of about £2,000 each for each match they plan in, and this is donated in full to charity. match payment of about £2,000 each – which has been donated to charity since 2008.
Mbappé has said that he will be donating all of the money he earns from the World Cup to Premiers de Cordée, which helps to organise sports activities for children with disabilities, and of which he is also patron.
Other national teams do it as well, including Croatia:
Editor’s update 14 July 2021
According to the English Football Association, women and men players have received the same appearance money since January 2020.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.