Charity football match between YouTubers
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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.
The event has been held on seven occasions since 2016: one at St Mary's Stadium, three at the Valley, one at London Stadium, and two at Wembley Stadium. All matches have been livestreamed via YouTube, promoting various charitable causes. In the first six editions, the seven members of the Sidemen—KSI, W2S, Miniminter, Zerkaa, Vikkstar123, TBJZL, and Behzinga—and various affiliated YouTubers competed as Sidemen Football Club,[note 1] whilst various other influencers competed as the YouTube Allstars. In the 2026 edition, three of the Sidemen played for the YouTube Allstars for the first time.
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 2026, the events have raised over £14.7 million for various British charities.
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]
St Mary's Stadium (2016)
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]
The Valley (2017–2022)
The Sidemen Charity Match was held at the Valley three times between 2017 and 2022.
The 2023 edition was held at London Stadium and raised over £2.4 million.
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]
Wembley Stadium (2025–2026)
The 2025 edition raised over £4.5 million after selling out Wembley Stadium.
On the 14 December 2025, it was announced that the Charity Match would return for a seventh instalment in 2026.[33] The match was played on 18 April 2026,[34][‡ 1] with the YouTube Allstars defending their victory, following a 10–10 draw and a 4–1 win in the subsequent penalty shoot-out.[35][36] In a first for the event, three members of the Sidemen—KSI, Miniminter and Behzinga—played on the YouTube Allstars.[‡ 1][36] Notable events in the match included referee Clattenburg overturning Sidemen FC player Niko Omilana's early goal over an ostensibly incorrect offside decision; and Fosh, in a third iteration of his yellow card–denial skits, burned a yellow card from Clattenburg in a magic trick.[35][37] Fosh was initially not invited to participate in the match, but was asked by Miniminter via a voice note sent six days before the match to join after Spanish YouTuber El Rubius, who was announced to join the YouTube Allstars in the Sidemen Charity Match draft held the previous month, dropped out of the match, with Fosh having only that time to come up with and prepare the card burning skit.[38] Multi-platinum rapper Tinie Tempah performed the halftime show.[36] The match raised over £6.2 million for two returning Sidemen-affiliated charities: Bright Side (86%) and M7 Education (14%).[39]
In the below table, an "S" on a black background indicates a Sidemen FC participant for that year, while a "Y" on a reddish background indicates a YouTube Allstars participant for that year. An "M" next to either "S" or "Y" indicates that the participant served as that team's manager for the match. Bolded player names are Sidemen members.
Calfreezy (pictured in 2024) is one of only two non-Sidemen members to have participated in every Sidemen Charity Match. He participated in the first five matches as a player and the two most recent matches as a manager.Grime MC Jme (pictured in 2015) played for Sidemen FC in the first six matches.KSI's brother Deji Olatunji (pictured in 2019) has played in every match except the first one.WillNE (pictured in 2025) has played in every match except the first one, all for the YouTube Allstars.Niko Omilana (pictured at Soccer Aid 2023) has played in the four most recent matches.Max Fosh (pictured in 2024) has played in the three most recent matches, all for the YouTube Allstars. He's become known throughout the matches for his recurring skit in which he denies a yellow card from referee Mark Clattenburg.