Sidemen Charity Match

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]

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. 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. Sidemen FC won the match 7–2, including a hat-trick from Miniminter.^[8]

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]

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]

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 and the 17th-largest stadium in the world.^[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]

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]

En la tabla siguiente, una "S" sobre fondo negro indica un participante del Sidemen FC de ese año, mientras que una "Y" sobre fondo rojizo indica un participante del YouTube Allstars de ese año. Una "M" junto a la "S" o la "Y" indica que el participante fue el entrenador de ese equipo en el partido. Los nombres de los jugadores en negrita son miembros del Sidemen. ^{[ a ]}

Calfreezy (en la foto de 2024) es uno de los dos únicos no miembros de Sidemen que han participado en todos los partidos benéficos de Sidemen. Participó en los primeros cinco partidos como jugador y en los dos más recientes como entrenador .

El MC de grime Jme (en la foto de 2015) jugó para el Sidemen FC en los primeros seis partidos.

El hermano de KSI, Deji Olatunji (en la foto de 2019), ha jugado en todos los partidos excepto en el primero.

WillNE (en la foto de 2025) ha jugado en todos los partidos excepto en el primero, todos para el equipo YouTube Allstars.

Niko Omilana (en la foto durante el Soccer Aid 2023) ha jugado en los cuatro partidos más recientes.

Max Fosh (en la foto de 2024) ha participado en los tres últimos partidos, todos para YouTube Allstars. Se ha hecho famoso durante los partidos por su sketch recurrente en el que niega una tarjeta amarilla del árbitro Mark Clattenburg .

Leyenda: El texto en negrita indica un miembro de Sidemen.