Football fans silent at Madeleine film

By Martina Smit
Daily Telegraph
Last Updated: 6:22pm BST 19/05/2007

Video: Don't forget Maddy

Ninety thousand FA Cup fans fell silent today as haunting images of missing Madeleine McCann were broadcast on a big screen.

A two-minute film asking for help to find the four-year-old, who was abducted from her parents' holiday apartment in Portugal 16 days ago, was shown before kick-off and at half time.

The appeal reached far beyond the grounds of the new Wembley Stadium, as an estimated 450 million people in 160 countries worldwide watched the match between Chelsea and Manchester United.

Madeleine's face, with her distinctive right eye, dominated the screens at either end of the pitch - each one the size of 600 domestic TV sets.

The little girl's right pupil merges into her iris - the one part of her appearance that whoever took her cannot change.

The video, set to the soundtrack of the Simple Minds hit Don't You Forget About Me, received a round of applause from fans.

Both football teams have close ties to Portugal. Chelsea captain John Terry and team-mate Paulo Ferreira have recorded appeals in the search for Madeleine, as has Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Find Madeleine film, which was also shown at the Uefa Cup final last Wednesday, is the latest part of what has snowballed into an international appeal for the missing girl from Rothley, Leicestershire.

More than 75 million people have visited a special website set up by the McCann family.

A fighting fund set up on Wednesday already totals £73,505, bankers said. The amount includes £50,000 from Portsmouth Football Club, but not money collected by banks and cheques yet to clear.

Multinational companies are helping to spread Madeleine's image across Europe. BP, Esso, Texaco, Shell and Total will put up posters of her in their petrol stations, and O2, Vodafone and Spain's Telefonica are running a mobile phone text campaign.

Coach operator National Express promised to place appeal posters in bus stations in 27 countries served by its Eurolines network, while Budget, British Airways and BAA will do the same in car hire offices, flights and airports.

Portuguese police are investigating several possible sightings, including one in Morocco last week, but officers said nothing has come of it yet.

Marie Olli, a Norwegian woman who lives in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, said yesterday she was "very sure" she saw Madeleine in Marrakech on May 9.

While stopped at a petrol station she saw a "sad" young blonde girl who initially appeared to be standing on her own.

Then an "anonymous-looking" man in his late 30s came over and the girl asked him: "Can I see mummy soon?"

One Portuguese officer travelled to Britain to liaise with the incident room set up near Madeleine's home, a spokesman of Leicestershire Police said. "His visit has not been generated by any specific development."

There were no plans for searches in Britain or for more Portuguese officers to be sent over, the spokesman added.