Madeleine Film aired at Cup Final, and that Fighting Fund bucket!

The picture in this article was on twitter earlier, and I always wondered if the image with the bucket had been photoshopped..... but no it is there on the BBC website.  As the person who tweeted it said, why on earth would you need a 'fighting fund'


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6672003.stm



Madeleine film aired at Cup final

Madeleine film aired at Cup final

The appeal was shown before the FA Cup final  A film asking for help in the search for missing girl Madeleine McCann has been shown at the FA Cup final. The two-minute video to Simple Minds' song Don't You (Forget About Me) was shown on big screens at Wembley Stadium before kick-off and during half-time. Madeleine, from Leicestershire, was abducted as she slept in her parents' holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on 3 May. The Find Madeleine DVD was also shown at the Uefa Cup final last Wednesday.   The footage was seen by 90,000 fans at Wembley, and could have reached 450 million more, as the match between Manchester United and Chelsea was expected to be watched in 160 countries. Police are investigating several possible sightings of Madeleine, including one in Marrakech, Morocco. Fighting fund Madeleine's parents took part in another candlelit vigil to pray for her safe return on Friday evening. Kate and Gerry McCann were joined in prayer by villagers in Praia da Luz more than two weeks after the four-year-old was abducted. Police have confirmed their only suspect, Briton Robert Murat, had phone contact with a key witness on the night the little girl disappeared. Money has poured in to a fighting fund set up for Madeleine on Wednesday. Bankers said the latest total was £73,505 - which includes £50,000 from Portsmouth Football Club - but does not include money collected by banks and building societies and cheques yet to clear. Madeleine's Fund is expected to swell as cheques clear   Madeleine's great-uncle Brian Kennedy, said: "It's the tip of the iceberg. The figure I have heard likely to be contributed is very considerable." A website set up to find the missing child from Rothley, Leicestershire, has received 65m hits and more than 25,000 messages of support since its launch on Wednesday. Multinational companies are supporting the efforts to spread Madeleine's image across Europe. BP, Shell, Esso, Texaco and Total will distribute appeal posters at their petrol stations, and there is a mobile phone text campaign run by Vodafone, O2 and Telefonica. Other backers of the campaign include supermarket chain Carrefour, McDonalds, Carphone Warehouse, Budget car rental, British Airways and BAA, which is displaying posters at all of its UK airports. Royal Bank of Scotland is overseeing cash collections and Spain's Banco Santander and France's Credit Agricole and La Poste are distributing posters. Coach operator National Express said posters of Madeleine would be placed in bus stations in 27 countries served by its Eurolines network. Inconsistencies Police say so far nothing has come of various possible sightings of Madeleine since she disappeared. And Ch Insp Olegario de Sousa said he did not have the evidence to arrest Robert Murat, 33, who denies any involvement. Officers are looking into alleged inconsistencies in an account given by a key witness. A Russian man, Sergey Malinka, reportedly told detectives that he and Mr Murat had not spoken for a year. The film was earlier shown at the Uefa Cup final in Glasgow But police sources have now confirmed to the BBC that the men had telephone contact on the night Madeleine disappeared. A Leicestershire police spokeswoman also confirmed that a Portuguese detective inspector had visited the English force's incident room to speak to officers. The force said a number of reported sightings were being investigated, including one made by a Norwegian tourist in Marrakech on 9 May. Rewards of £2.5m have been offered to anyone with information leading to the four-year-old's safe return. Details of how to donate to Madeleine's Fund - at banks, by post or via the internet - can be found at www.findmadeleine.com.

Or just put the money in an envelop, addressed to Kate & Gerry in Rothley, and it will get there.
I'm not Jesus, but I wept ...

It's a strange choice of words in this situation of a missing child.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fighting_fund

If I recall correctly, the idea of a "fighting fund" was because at the very beginning the parents were claiming that the investigation had been bungled by the Portuguese police and the "fighting fund" was to help them "fight" everything that was going against them in their quest to find Madeleine, and therefore it was their "fight" to overcome all obstacles to find their daughter. At the time I don't believe it was questioned at all because of the way they'd promoted Madeleine's "abduction" and the way they'd argued there was a lack of cooperation and "bungling" from the Portuguese authorities.

Now of course, in hindsight, it seems completely ludicrous that they could promote it in such a way, and it seems even more obvious that the "fight" wasn't to find Madeleine at all, but to save themselves.

candyfloss wrote:
Bankers said the latest total was £73,505 - which includes £50,000 from Portsmouth Football Club - but does not include money collected by banks and building societies and cheques yet to clear.

Extraordinary effort by Portsmouth FC, I wonder how much of it was down to Pedro Mendes being there at the time?

They could really have done with that fifty grand at several times in the years since!

canada12 wrote:

Now of course, in hindsight, it seems completely ludicrous that they could promote it in such a way, and it seems even more obvious that the "fight" wasn't to find Madeleine at all, but to save themselves.

Remarkably prescient on their part - or more likely that of their advisers.