A scandal-hit charity backed by royalty, corporate giants and celebrities cynically exploited vulnerable African children for publicity, the Daily Mail reveals today.

The Didier Drogba Foundation – which is supported by Princess Beatrice and David Beckham – claimed to provide thousands of schoolchildren in the Ivory Coast with ‘the basic tools needed to get an education’.

But the Mail can reveal that in at least one school, learning materials – including notebooks and pens – were only given to children who appeared in a promotional film.

Scroll down for video

The Foundation, set up by former Chelsea footballer Didier Drogba, also had 20 African orphans taken by bus to a mansion miles from their home, where photographs taken of them with the striker on Christmas Day for promotional pictures were later posted on Twitter.

The children had a festive lunch with the footballer and his wife and three children, were given presents and played for a few hours before being sent back.

The Mail can also reveal that youngsters pictured with the Ivorian footballer in one of the charity’s main publicity photographs are not African beneficiaries of the Foundation, but child models from the UK.

One of the youngsters is the grandson of renowned England and Arsenal footballer Ian Wright.

The Daily Mail yesterday revealed how the Didier Drogba Foundation is being investigated by the Charity Commission and the United Nations after reporters found it spent less than one per cent of money raised in the UK on good causes.

Since 2009, just £14,115 out of £1.7million given by donors has been spent on charity projects.

Almost half a million pounds was spent on decadent fundraising parties in London, where celebrities were entertained by pop stars at top hotels. The rest has been left languishing unused in bank accounts.

The Mail can also reveal that in at least one school, learning materials – including notebooks and pens – were only given to children who appeared in a promotional film. Above, Drogba and Una Healy from The Saturdays, at the Foundation charity ball in 2010

The revelations have stunned supporters of the charity run by world-renowned footballer Drogba, who is also a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador.

Britain’s charity watchdog has launched an investigation and its chief operating officer, David Holdsworth, said it has ‘serious concerns’ and would probe whether the Foundation ‘provided misleading information to donors and the public’.

Minister for Civil Society Rob Wilson added that the allegations were ‘extremely worrying’. There are also questions about millions of pounds in sponsorship earnings from global corporations Pepsi, Nike and Samsung, which Drogba claims have gone to the charity.

The funds were paid directly in to an account in the Foundation’s name in the Ivory Coast, which is not subject to scrutiny by the Charity Commission.

The Foundation has declined to reveal whether the footballer paid any UK income tax on these sponsorship payments, made over six years while he was living in a £7million mansion in Surrey and playing for Premiership side Chelsea.

NEEDY AFRICANS? NO, CHILD IN PR PHOTO IS ENGLAND STAR'S GRANDSON Former England striker Ian Wright A child used to promote Didier Drogba’s African charity is the grandson of former England striker Ian Wright – and lives in a £700,000 detached house in Surrey. The seven-year-old is one of three youngsters who appear by a sign for a ‘hospital’ wearing T-shirts for the Didier Drogba Foundation. But the Mail has discovered they are not underprivileged children from Drogba’s Ivory Coast homeland – but child models allegedly selected and paid to appear for their physical likeness to the former Chelsea striker, 38. One of the children – Harvey Wright-Phillips – is the son of Shaun Wright-Phillips, a teammate of Drogba at Chelsea between 2005 and 2008. His grandfather is Ian Wright MBE, who achieved fame with Arsenal and England and is now a regular TV pundit. Yesterday Harvey’s mother Sian Owen said she took the photo during the filming of an advert last year for Turkish Airlines, in which her son appeared with Drogba. In one part of the commercial, the footballer is shown ‘back home’ in Ivory Coast with three smiling children next to a mock-up of a hospital his foundation is building. Miss Owen, 32, claimed Harvey was picked for his ‘complexion’. The image she uploaded to a social media site was later used by The Sports PR Company – which deals with publicity for the Foundation – and on the charity’s profile page on Twitter. Miss Owen, who lives in a four-bedroom detached home in Purley, Surrey, added: ‘I didn’t see him ever claiming it was taken in Africa or anything. You can see from the Turkish Airlines advert on TV that it’s clearly shot in a studio.’ Ian Wright declared yesterday: ‘I’ve got nothing to do with it.’ Mr Wright-Phillips has not responded to a request for comment. The Didier Drogba Foundation said the star had initially made clear the photo was taken during the advert shoot. Advertisement

The charity has become a renowned cause in the UK and backed by celebrities including U2 singer Bono and sporting giants such as Pele and Roger Federer.

It claims to have provided financial support across health and education in Africa for nearly a decade. As part of its fundraising drive, the charity has held four lavish balls for its millionaire donors at top London hotels the Dorchester and the Grosvenor House.

Guests who have attended include Princess Beatrice, Frank Lampard and Christine Bleakley.

Drogba’s publicists said the parties ‘raised over £1 million’ – but accounts filed to the Charity Commission show the Foundation actually made less than £250,000 profit from the balls.

And one cost so much to host that it actually lost the charity £71,706. In its first three-and-a-half years, no money raised in the UK was spent on charitable activities. Meanwhile, the charity work carried out in the Ivory Coast was done at Drogba’s personal expense.

He claims this charity work has amounted to £2.94million.

This includes the cost of building a clinic in Ivory Coast, although it is not yet open. All the work is understood to have been funded from an Ivorian bank account in the name of the Foundation into which Drogba says millions of pounds from his sponsorship earnings are paid.

Its accounts are not open to public scrutiny and the charity has refused to show them to the Mail. After the Mail published its investigation into the Didier Drogba Foundation yesterday, the footballer issued a statement saying the story was incorrect. He said: ‘The Foundation ... [has] all the documentation required by law both in the UK and the Ivory Coast. The Foundation’s work to date has been funded entirely by me through sponsorship earnings and donations in the amount of 3.7million euros [£2.94million].’

Among the projects he said the Foundation helped fund were the building of the charity’s first clinic, a mobile health unit, school bags and books, a dialysis machine and support to orphanages.

He added: ‘The £1.7 million from UK fundraising will be used to make the main clinic fully operational, including medical equipment, staff, medicine and running costs.’ Last night, Drogba said on TV in Canada: ‘All these projects I’m talking about, they have been financed by my sponsorship deals. People need to understand that we not only need to organise charity events – so you need some funds there – but also I’m responsible for this money. So I’m not going to spend it just to spend it.

‘I know what I want to do and this money will be spent at the right time when it needed to be spent. I built one clinic, which is in Ivory Coast, which is not functional now. But I built the clinic. It’s a concrete project. It’s really there.’

A spokesman for the Mail said: ‘The Daily Mail stands by every word of this important story which has prompted an investigation by the Charity Commission. The documents provided to us by the Didier Drogba Foundation failed to address the very serious questions posed by our journalists.’

All we got was a few sheep: The Mail went to the schools and orphanages in Africa that celebs thought they were helping - and found frustration and dismay

By Paul Bentley in Ivory Coast for the Daily Mail

After the Mail published its investigation into the Didier Drogba Foundation, the footballer insisted he had spent millions of pounds of his own money on a range of charity projects.

As part of our investigation, we travelled to Ivory Coast to speak to the schools, orphanages and health centres the Foundation claims to have supported. Our findings indicate what the charity has told its donors does not match the reality on the ground.

The Mail went to the schools and orphanages in Africa that celebs thought they were helping - and found frustration and dismay. Above, Princess Beatrice poses with Didier Drogba at the Foundation's 2012 ball

SCHOOL BAGS THAT FELL APART IN DAYS

In an emotive video shown to celebrity donors last year, smiling children in the Ivory Coast are seen collecting Didier Drogba Foundation school bags and skipping to school with them on their backs.

In the background, a charity co-ordinator declares that the Foundation ‘gave 5,000 schoolbags to young kids in school’. He adds: ‘To go to school, you need your pen to write and it’s not always affordable to all families.’

But the Mail has discovered that only those children who agreed to appear in the promotional video for the Foundation were given the school bags. In a school of 800 pupils, only the 55 who appeared on camera received them – and they were of such poor quality that days later they fell apart.

The headmistress of the school, in a run-down neighbourhood of Abidjan, the biggest city in Ivory Coast, said the bags were only given to one class of 55 pupils. Braffou N’Guessan Adjoua said: ‘It was to reward them. It was only one class, it was not for all the pupils.’

Asked if they still had their bags, the schoolchildren laughed and said in unison: ‘It’s broken.’ Local education chief Sylvane Oppro said: ‘The bags are not of good quality. Drogba did not change anyone’s life.’

The bags were distributed at Lokoa 3 school by the Foundation in collaboration with Unesco and mobile phone firm Orange as part of a campaign named The Heart School kits project. The other bags were donated to different schools across the region.

Unesco admitted the bags were ‘not satisfactory’. A spokesman for Orange said it paid for some of the items in the kits, such as the notebooks.

Drogba yesterday confirmed that he funded The Heart School kits by donating £49,000, adding: ‘I want to help children from the Ivory Coast become leaders of the next generation, actors, politicians, scientists, doctors, teachers and sportspeople, but you can only get there with education and healthcare.’

The Mail has discovered that only those children who agreed to appear in the promotional video for the Foundation were given school bags. Above, one of the Abidjan schools where children received Drogba Foundation schoolbags, which fell apart with less than a few months use

In a school of 800 pupils, only the 55 who appeared on camera received them – and they were of such poor quality that days later they fell apart

SCHOOL FUNDED BY CHOCOLATE GIANT

In February this year, the Didier Drogba Foundation announced a new primary school would be built in the Ivory Coast in Drogba’s name, in collaboration with Nestlé.

But the entire cost of building the school will be met by the chocolate giant, the Mail has found.

It is understood that Nestlé agreed to build the school in Drogba’s name in return for the footballer appearing in a promotional video announcing that the school was to be built in Ivory Coast. It is not known how the running costs will be funded and the Foundation declined to comment on the agreement with Nestlé.

ORPHANAGE OFFERED DROGBA'S PICTURE

In October 2013, Drogba tweeted about another orphanage in Ivory Coast. ‘Best moment of my short stay in Abidjan this visit of an orphanage “Village S.O.S Abobo”. My new family’,’ he wrote.

But Gisele Stephanie Nzickonan, the orphanage’s communications and fundraising manager said: ‘He has never given money.’

Another fundraising manager at the orphanage said he contacted the Foundation and was told it would not give money but could possibly lend his ‘picture’ to the orphanage in support.

‘They said if I prepare an activity, he can look at how we can put his image on it,’ he said. ‘Perhaps his picture can bring some money, perhaps by saying that with Didier Drogba we are doing such and such an activity.

‘The football players, what have they done? They aren’t doing anything.’

OLD, CRUMBLING BUILDINGS

The Drogba Foundation claims on its website to collaborate with and donate to an orphanage for girls in the town of Grand Bassam.

But the only record the institution can find of any donation is a cheque for just under £2,000 that Drogba gave in 2008.

For years, we have been awaiting renovation. The water and electricity are cut-off from time to time Marie-Cecile Ouattara, director of the Grand Bassam orphanage

The orphanage – for 125 girls aged six to 14 – is desperate for funds to renovate shoddy classrooms, which would cost only £8,900.

Marie-Cecile Ouattara, director of the Grand Bassam orphanage, said: ‘For years, we have been awaiting renovation. The water and electricity are cut-off from time to time. We even once had a fracture [during a power cut]. One of the girls broke her foot.’

Asked if the Foundation has donated funds to the orphanage, Mrs Ouattara said: ‘No, not since I’ve been here. I have been here since 2012.’ But she has thanked Drogba and his children for visiting the orphanage in the past, including last Christmas.

The director of the related boys orphanage in Bingerville said it had received some presents from the Foundation and ‘two or three sheep’ to be sacrificed for a Muslim festival.

'BUSSED TO HIS MANSION FOR A PICTURE'

At the end of last year, Drogba posted a picture on Instagram of himself with Ivorian orphans. ‘Having fun with my kids. My family and I are blessed to have these kids as family, our home is your home. Merry Christmas to you all,’ he wrote, adding the hashtag ‘#orphansnomore’.

The Mail has since discovered that Drogba had 20 orphans bussed to his mansion in Abidjan, where they had Christmas lunch with him and his family, he gave them each a present and he was photographed playing with them. After a few hours, the orphans were bussed back to their orphanage, Pouponniere Yopougon.

Employees said they were very grateful to Drogba for playing with the children and giving them Christmas presents. It is not known whether the Foundation has donated any money to the orphanage.

DISABLED CHILDREN PROMISED FUNDS

Drogba’s charity writes on its website that it collaborates with and donates to the Page Blanche Institution for disabled children.

The footballer has been photographed handing the children gifts. But the Foundation will not say how much it has given to the centre, in Abidjan.

When the Mail visited, a manager said Drogba had given a total of £5,730 but has not donated since 2012.

‘He organised Christmas for our children in 2012 when he insisted on being there and on personally giving presents to our children,’ she said. ‘He took some photographs with our children. He kissed each child and then he left. That’s it.’

The manager said the institution – which looks after 35 disabled children – was grateful for the presents and donations. It is now trying to raise £800,000 for a new school and rehabilitation centre, and is hoping Drogba will help.

‘I spoke to him,’ she said. ‘He had tears in his eyes. He promised that he can help us to build. He has always been kind to us.’

Drogba’s charity also writes on its website that it collaborates with and donates to the Page Blanche Institution (above) for disabled children

ORPHANAGE GIVEN A CHRISTMAS TREE

Donors have also been told Drogba’s foundation helps and donates to the Madame Houphouet-Boigny private orphanage for babies in Abidjan.

But when asked if Drogba had visited, the director said: ‘No, he gave a Christmas tree.’ She did not know if the Foundation had ever given money to her orphanage.

MEDICAL TREATMENT

Before the UK foundation was set up, Drogba used the Ivorian charity account to fund medical treatment for a child named Yao, who had leukaemia.

Drogba met the boy on a visit to a hospital in Ivory Coast. He subsequently paid for him and his family to be flown to Switzerland, where he received medical treatment.

Sadly, the boy died. Drogba paid for the repatriation of his body and the cost of his funeral.

WOMEN’S GROUPS

Four groups of women in Bouaflé in central Ivory Coast have been given £7,900 by the charity, which donated food items, a cassava grinder, a telephone booth, and footballs.

CLINIC THAT ISN’T OPEN AFTER SIX YEARS

Donors in the UK were told that a hospital – and up to five other clinics – built by the Foundation would transform the lives of Ivorians.

Six years later, only one small clinic building has been constructed. It is empty and still not open. Patients will not be able to stay overnight, and it will have just ten treatment beds.

Drogba’s representatives say this clinic in Abidjan is a more appropriate way of providing healthcare and cost millions to build, with the footballer paying £2.5million for the building to be constructed.

Six years later, only one small clinic building has been constructed (green building, pictured above). It is empty and still not open. Patients will not be able to stay overnight, and it will have just ten treatment beds

The unfurnished and unfinished inside of the hospital, which has been built in the Ivory Coast by the Foundation

MOBILE CLINIC THAT DID ONE TRIAL RUN

Didier Drogba has also provided money for a mobile health truck which will screen children for congenital heart disease. The footballer’s representatives claim he spent £270,000 on this – and that it is ‘operational’ and already screening patients.

However, a charity called The Heart Fund – which built the mobile clinic – said the Foundation paid £172,000, while other patrons have also supported the project.

A spokesman for The Heart Fund said it was ‘technically operational’, but had only performed an initial trial for one day in December. The Foundation insists this is wrong, saying that Drogba paid for the mobile clinic in its entirety and it is operational.

A security guard at the clinic said yesterday that a ‘mobile hospital had arrived in Abidjan today’.

Didier Drogba and his Foundation did not comment on the specific allegations we put to them, but the footballer has said that he has supported many other projects in Ivory Coast and that he has ‘a profound and sincere commitment’ to orphans in the country.

He added: ‘The Foundation’s work to date has been funded entirely by me through sponsorship earnings and donations in the amount of 3.7million euros (£2.94million). Projects funded have included supporting orphanages.’

'Rottweiler' who helped transform his bad boy image: Caroline McAteer signed up to help footballer in 2009 - months before announcing aid project

By Matt Lawton for the Daily Mail

Once derided for his cheating on the pitch, Didier Drogba’s reputation was transformed by a celebrity publicist known as ‘The Rottweiler’.

In 2009 the footballer signed up with Caroline McAteer – the woman credited with turning David and Victoria Beckham into global superstars.

And within months Drogba had announced an aid project in his home country of Ivory Coast, raising money for a hospital with funding from a deal with Pepsi. He later signed sponsorship deals with firms like BT Sport and Turkish Airlines and is thought to have earned almost £15million a year at the peak of his career.

Once derided for his cheating on the pitch, Didier Drogba’s reputation was transformed by a celebrity publicist known as ‘The Rottweiler’ - Caroline McAteer (pictured)

By 2010, the divisive figure who had once thrown a coin at opposition fans was on the cover of Time magazine alongside Bill Clinton and Lady Gaga as one of its 100 most influential people in the world. The star is now seen as a leading humanitarian, with his charity’s work even recognised by the UN. Crucial to his success is Miss McAteer, who now represents some of the biggest names in football through her firm, The Sports PR Company – and many of her clients have enjoyed huge financial success.

Dubbed ‘The Rottweiler’ by some showbiz journalists according to industry publication PR Week, she has been described by The Guardian as ‘the PR woman from hell’ and a ‘control freak’.

She is now listed as company secretary for the Didier Drogba Foundation – and the footballer has been outspoken in his gratitude to Miss McAteer.