Didier Drogba is taking legal action against the Daily Mail after his charity, the 'Didier Drogba Foundation', was cleared of wrongdoing following the newspaper's claims that it had been engaging in fraudulent behaviour.
Didier Drogba's charity, the 'Didier Drogba Foundation', was accused in a report by the Daily Mail earlier this year of only using £14,115 of the £1.7 million donated to it since 2009 for charity causes. The report claimed that £500,000 of the money was spent on "decadent fundraising parties in London" while the rest was left unused in bank accounts. It also claimed, among other things, that children used in a publicity photograph for the charity were not African beneficiaries but rather "child models from the UK".
But today Drogba's charity were cleared by the Charity Commission in the UK of any wrongdoing as there was "no evidence of fraud or corruption". It did say, however, that there were issues "with regard to transparency to donors and the public" and issued an action plan to the Didier Drogba Foundation to help it address those issues.
Drogba made the following statement about the Commission's findings via his Facebook page:
The Charities Commission has today confirmed after a seven month investigation, that no funds have been misapplied by my Foundation, and that there has been no financial wrongdoing, no fraud and no corruption. I am pleased that this supports what we always said from the start which is that the claims made by the Daily Mail back in April were entirely false. I have instructed my lawyers to seek a full apology and damages to be paid to my Foundation from the Daily Mail.
Drogba is currently displaying his talents for Montreal Impact in the MLS. He's something of a hero in his home country of the Ivory Coast for his footballing brilliance, the charity work he does there and the fact that he helped bring about a temporary state of peace during the country's civil war.
