The sideman charity match was already set for a packed Wembley stage on Saturday afternoon ET, but the event picked up a sharper edge when Luke Littler was left out. The darts champion had asked to be included after the Sidemen announced the sell-out, yet KSI made clear that the answer was no.
Why was Luke Littler left out of the Sideman Charity Match?
KSI said the decision was simple in his view: the sideman charity match is reserved for content creators, not outside celebrities. Speaking on Capital FM, he said, “I have not responded and he’s not in. It sounds so bad, but we only have content creators on the Sidemen Charity Match. ” He added that the group had never brought in a celebrity, saying that kind of crossover is more suited to Soccer Aid.
Littler, the two-time reigning darts world champion, had made his interest plain in February when he replied to the Sidemen’s sold-out announcement with the words, “Get me in the team Sidemen. ” That message turned a routine event update into a small public tug-of-war between one of sport’s fastest-rising names and a creator-led football fixture with a strict identity.
What does the Wembley event mean beyond one snub?
The match is more than a single afternoon’s entertainment. The Sidemen Charity Match has been held six times since its first event in 2016, and around £8. 5 million has reportedly been raised for charity across those games. Last year’s Wembley edition was said to have brought in £4. 7 million for Children in Need, Bright Side, and M7 Education.
That scale explains why the fixture matters to so many people watching from outside the creator economy. The stadium will be full, with the game kicking off at 3pm ET, and the atmosphere reflects a wider pattern: online personalities now draw live crowds large enough to rival traditional sports occasions. The sideman charity match sits at that intersection of internet fame, fundraising, and fan loyalty, where the line between digital culture and major-event sport has become increasingly thin.
Still, the event’s future is not fully settled. One participant, Swedish creator Marlon, said on a stream this week that he had been told this would be the “last” edition. That claim has not been independently confirmed in the material available, but it has added a note of uncertainty to a fixture built on momentum and spectacle.
Who is stepping in, and what is being said now?
While Littler is out, the line-up still includes familiar creator names. Strictly Come Dancing finalist George Clarke and I’m a Celebrity winner Angry Ginge are among those featured, underlining that the match remains rooted in internet personalities rather than outside sporting guests. That approach is exactly what KSI defended when asked why Littler would not be included.
For Littler, the rejection arrives at a time when his profile continues to stretch far beyond darts. He had been willing to switch sports for a charitable cause, but the door stayed shut. For the Sidemen, the decision protects the format they have built. For Wembley, it means the crowd will still get a full house, a charity mission, and the familiar pull of a creator event that has become big enough to create its own debate.
As the teams walk out and the noise rises inside Wembley, the unanswered question hangs over the afternoon: if the sideman charity match ever does open its doors to a non-creator star, would it change the event’s identity, or only prove how much bigger it has already become?
