Telegraph | Sport | Credit to Johnno, but is it all fair?

Telegraph | Sport | Credit to Johnno, but is it all fair?: "Ah, charity. Now, perhaps, you are feeling a bit different. Johnson has chosen three charities to benefit from his testimonial year. NSPCC, also supported by the England squad, SPARKS and Macmillan cancer relief, whose nurses looked after Johnson's mother when she had the illness, will get substantial sums if all goes well - a minimum of �25,000 each. Graham Birkett, whose company Harlequin Events is promoting some of the bigger dinners, has pledged half of the proceeds from the biggest one of all, the London Benefit Dinner at Billingsgate, to Johnson's chosen charities.
Does that make you feel better? Happier now that the money is going to worthy causes and not into Johnson's back pocket, because there are some very unsavoury rumours out there of revenue raised from recent testimonials not ending up where it was promised? Birkett recalls an occasion when one former England captain hung up the phone when it was suggested that he share half the profit of a benefit dinner with a charity. There is no suggestion whatsoever of Johnson getting up to those tricks. 'The aim is to raise �500,000 for charity,' Hazlerigg said. Johnson, of course, would get at least that amount if that target was reached.
And that, for me, is where it gets difficult. The sheer scale of some of the more high-profile testimonials takes them out of the a-few-bob-for-distinguished-service niche and up into the mega moneyspinner category. According to Birkett, when Peter Winterbottom, one of the few England forwards of recent vintage who can claim to be of Johnson's stature, retired, he collected around �4,000 from a single benefit dinner. Dean Richards, another England legend, also failed to profit hug"