COMEDIAN Joe Lycett has appeared to shred £10,000 of his own money after he presented David Beckham with an ultimatum to pull out of his role as a Qatar ambassador or he would destroy the cash.
The comic set the former England footballer a deadline of midday on November 20 to take action after it was reported Beckham had signed a controversial £10 million deal with the Fifa World Cup hosts.
The contest kicked off last night in Qatar - where homosexuality is still illegal and anyone found participating in same-sex sexual activity can be punished with up to seven years in prison.
Lycett offered to donate £10,000 of his own money to LGBTQ+ charities if Beckham ended the sponsorship before the tournament started, and if not he said he would livestream himself shredding the money along with Beckham's "status as gay icon".
Appearing to stand by his decision, the Birmingham-born comedian videoed himself on a Twitch stream wearing a rainbow-layered tulle outfit and placed wads of what appeared to be cash into an industrial shredder, but it was not clear if the banknotes were genuine money.
Lycett later shared a video of the act to his Twitter and wrote "A platform for progress".
Prior to the stunt, Lycett had shared a video message directed at Beckham where he commended the footballer for always talking about "the power of football as a force for good", but said Qatar is "one of the worst places in the world to be gay".
Lycett told the footballer: "If you end your relationship with Qatar, I will donate ten grand of my own money (that's a grand for every million you're reportedly getting) to charities that support queer people in football.
Beckham is yet to publicly acknowledge or respond to the comic.