Soccer Aid 2020 viewers raise over £11.5 million as Rest of the World XI wins

Soccer Aid fans managed raise for £5.5 million for Unicef tonight, as the Rest of the World XI beat the England team in a tense finale.

As always, teams of celebrities faced off against each other tonight in order to raise as much money for charity as possible.

And it all came down to the wire in a tense penalty shoot out, where former Love Island star Kem Cetinay scored the winning goal, enabling Rest of the World to walk away with the trophy.

Other members of the winning team included comedian Mo Gilligan, Radio 1 DJ Roman Kemp and Love Island narrator Iain Sterling.

Then, hosts Dermot O’Leary and Kirsty Gallagher announced the total amount raised during the show tonight by the public was a stagger £11.5 million pounds, a record for the event.

‘A record=breaking total raised at tonight’s Soccer Aid,’ the official account posted on Twitter.

‘Your donations will truly make a difference to children around the world [and will be] tripled up to £3 million thanks to UK Aid.’

Tonight also saw players from both knees take the knee before the start of the match, in honour of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Taking part for England were celeb players Marvin Humes, Olly Murs, Joe Wicks, Paddy McGuinness, Mark Wright, Alfie Allen, James Bay, John Bishop, Chunkz, Joel Dommett, Liv Cooke, Tom Davis, Danny Jones and Yung Filly. 

Squaring up against them were the Rest Of The World XI celebrities, which were Kem Cetinay, Mo Gilligan, Iain Striling, Chelcee Grimes, Roman Kemp, Dermot Kennedy, DJ Locksmith, Jeremy Lynch, Jason Manford, Ore Oduba, Serge Pizzorno, Santan Dave and Billy Wingrove.

As well as the poignant symbol for BLM, Olly Murs revealed the importance of the money raised by the event for Unicef. 

He explained: ‘We are playing for ‘Generation Covid’ and the children around the world who will be affected by this awful virus. 

‘I know that you can’t come and see us in the stadium, but you can still donate and, this year, your donation is three times more valuable.’

And it most certainly was – congratulations to everyone involved!

Soccer Aid aired on ITV.

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