Striker's foundation cleared of fraud, corruption

After being vindicated, Drogba is now seeking damages and an apology from Daily Mail. 

 

 Veteran striker Didier Drogba has revealed that his foundation has been cleared of any fraud and financial wrong doing by the UK Charity Commission.

The UK Charity Commission launched an investigation into the Didier Drogba Foundation following a Daily Mail report that funds donated to the foundation have been misapplied.

Daily Mail in April 2016 reports that £439,321 was spent putting on lavish fundraising parties attended by his friends and celebrities, and more than £1m languished in bank accounts.

The UK news platform also reports that only one clinic has been built by the foundation in Cote d’Ivoire which is currently not in operation and empty.

  Daily Mail reports that the foundation built just one clinic in Cote d’Ivoire (jamie Wiseman for the Daily Mail)

After seven months of investigation, the UK Charity Commission clear the foundation the allegations.

“We have been able to satisfy our most serious concerns in relation to the charity by confirming that funds have not been misapplied and that all funds raised in the English charity's name have been held by the English charity," the UK Charity Commission said in a report.

"We are also able to confirm that we found no evidence of fraud or corruption on behalf of the charity."

Reacting to the report, Drogba took to his Twitter to thank those who have supported him throughout the investigation. 

“The Charities Commission has today confirmed after a seven-month investigation, that no funds have been misapplied by my Foundation,” Drogba wrote on Twitter. 

“They have confirmed 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, that the claims made by the Daily Mail back in April were entirely false.”

 

After being vindicated, Drogba is now seeking damages and an apology from Daily Mail who are insisting that they never alleged corruption in their report. 

“I have instructed my lawyers to seek a full apology and damages to be paid to my Foundation from the Daily Mail,” the 38-year-old striker wrote.

 

Despite not finding any evidence of foul play, the Charity Commission was, however, critical of the foundation for failing to separate its activities from those of an Africa-based arm of the organisation.

  Didier Drogba is now seeking damages and an apology from Daily Mail (Getty/AFP)

They frowned on the fact that funds donated were not spent on hospitals or clinics as donors were made to believe but were being saved in a UK current account.

"Donors will have expected their donations to have been used for charitable purposes, not accumulated in a bank account," the report read.

The UK Commission say the foundation misled its donors (Richard Young/REX Shutterstock)

"Donors to the English charity may also have been misled about the activities of the charity they were supporting.

"This is because the impression was given that the English charity had financed the activities of the Ivory Coast Foundation, which is clearly not the case."

The Commission then issued the foundation with an ‘action plan’ to make improvements.

The Didier Drogba Foundation was launched in the UK in 2009 when the former Ivory Coast captain was playing for Chelsea.