To celebrate anime for everyone, Crunchyroll has been announced as one of the main sponsors for the biggest charity sporting event of the year; Sidemen FC vs YouTube AllStars. The match will be held at London Stadium on 9th September and will be available to watch via live stream worldwide.
“From BIRDIE WING -Golf Girls’ Story- to BLUELOCK, Prince of Tennis to Haikyu!! sports have captivated the hearts of anime fans around the world. Crunchyroll is thrilled at the chance to take our passion for sports and anime into the real world and support such a great cause,” said Ariane Sunder, Vice President of Emerging & Regional Markets at Crunchyroll. “The Sidemen FC charity match is the perfect opportunity to both celebrate anime and give back to our community.”
The charities being donated to are: Bright Side (Sidemen charity), Teenage Cancer Trust, Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), Rays of Sunshine and M7E.
Last year the Sidemen FC Charity Match returned after a two-year COVID hiatus to rapturous acclaim. More than 25,000 fans travelled to Charlton Athletic’s The Valley Stadium to watch the streaming sensations battle it out on the pitch and raise over £1,000,000 for charity, as well as being awarded a Guinness World Record for most-watched live sports event on YouTube.
This year, the Sidemen are back with their biggest and boldest charity match yet. Hosted at London Stadium, all 62,000 tickets sold out within 90 minutes as fans clamoured for the chance to watch Sidemen FC take to the field.
This year’s roster sees the Sidemen return to the pitch alongside a number of YouTube legends including Airrack, Abo Flah, and Mr Beast, as well as a halftime show from legendary rapper Aitch.
“It was always going to be tough to top last year’s match but we think this event is going to be something really special. We’re at a brand new venue, with a bigger line-up e than ever before!” said Tobi. “As big anime fans, we’re really pleased that Crunchyroll is on board for this, it’s going to be a great show to raise lots of money for a great cause!”
The match will be held at London Stadium on 9th September and starts at 3pm, also available to watch via live stream from 2.15pm. The official Sidemen FC jersey with Crunchyroll logo will be available online and at the NIKE flagship store on Oxford Street for fans to purchase.
