Liverpool and Jota’s family have denied any connection to the fund or website.
A website for a charity purporting to have been established in memory of Diogo Jota has vanished when it was revealed that it had no ties to his family or Liverpool.
The Diogo Jota Foundation, which was established three days after the striker’s death on July 3, claimed to have received $64,250 (£47,715) in donations via its website, diogojotafoundation.org.
The foundation’s aim was characterized on the website’s homepage as “Honoring the Legacy of Diogo Jota,” with the addition that “Through football, education, and hope, we carry forward the light he left behind – creating opportunity, joy, and lasting impact for the youth of Gondomar and beyond.”
They stated that the Diogo Jota Foundation was founded in 2025 to “celebrate Diogo’s incredible journey from a small youth academy in Gondomar to one of Europe’s most respected footballers.”
It also stated that they have delivered 25,000 lunches, sponsored 300 students in schools, and established 50 local collaborations.
According to The Telegraph, the charity established in memory of Jota is now under scrutiny.
It comes after Liverpool told the publication that they and Jota’s family knew nothing about the foundation or its website, and the Charity Commission verified that they never asked to register with them.
In addition, the website includes logos for Liverpool FC, Allianz, Unicef, and the Portuguese Platform of Development NGOs, all of which have since denied working with the charity.
Allianz UK stated, “We can confirm that we do not have a partnership, and our logo should not have been used on this website. We monitor illegal usage of our brand and are taking steps to have the website shut down by the appropriate authorities.”
The report continued: “Misuse of branding is an ongoing issue in the digital world, and fraudsters will often try to add recognised brands to their fake websites to try and deceive the public.”
The foundation exclusively accepted cryptocurrency payments, leading customers off-site to a platform where they could pay with ‘USDT, ETH, and other crypto using NOWPayments securely’.
Kate Lifshits, CEO of NOWPayments, acknowledged that no funds have been processed to the foundation.
“We are aware that the NOWPayments payment system may have been used for fraudulent fundraising activities on behalf of a foundation that is not affiliated with the Diogo Jota family,” she stated.
“I can confirm that no payments for this foundation were completed by NOWPayments. As soon as we learned of the alleged scam, we promptly stopped supplying services to the project.
“Our widget does not work on the foundation’s website. We frequently meet such behaviors and respond quickly, whether or not they involve public figures.”
At the time of writing, the website appears to be no longer operational, with users being sent to a domain hosting site.
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