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Reds see Beckham blues Banned Man U star, wife can't escape controversy
Posted: Saturday January 08, 2000 12:06 AM
LONDON (AP) -- While David Beckham faced up to another suspension on Friday for his latest scandal on the soccer field, his wife, "Posh Spice" Victoria Adams, was preparing for a media grilling over the launch of her TV chat show. It's all in a day's work for the headline-hogging Beckhams. Whatever they do gets recorded in the papers and on TV day by day. Unfortunately for both, every camera and every microphone is there to record the bad times as well as the good. A day after his wife let slip on live TV that her husband occasionally liked to wear her skimpy underwear, Beckham, a candidate for world player of the year, tarnished his image once again when he was expelled while playing for United in a championship which itself was hoping for a good press. On Friday, Beckham was banned for one match and fined 2,000 Swiss francs (US$1,280) for his offense, which was designated as serious foul play. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson got a one-match ban, meaning he cannot be on the sidelines against Vasco da Gama on Saturday. He was also fined 5,000 Swiss francs for "unacceptable behavior." Beckham and his United colleagues arrived in Brazil hoping to show the world that the inaugural Club World Championship was worth the hassle of walking out of the 126-year-old FA Cup just to take part. Manchester United had left the oldest club competition in the world to take part in the newest and had suffered months of criticism for doing so before the Champions League holder took the field on Thursday against Mexican club Necaxa at Maracana stadium. A goal down and struggling in the oppressive heat, Beckham and his teammates weren't exactly enjoying themselves. So it wasn't the best time for the blonde-haired winger to lose his cool and kick out at a Necaxa player as they challenged for a bouncing ball, his cleats hitting Jose Milian just above the right knee. In scenes reminiscent of Beckham's ejection against Argentina at the 1988 World Cup, the Manchester United star was shown the red card and trudged off the field. Beckham, soon to be the butt of jokes about his wife's unguarded comments on TV, faced more humiliation. He spent the rest of the game sitting at the side of the field watching as the other 10 Reds rescued a point in a 1-1 tie that still gives them a chance of advancing in the eight-club championship. Back home, few people leapt to Beckham's defense and the papers launched a scathing attack on his latest misconduct as the United star hit both the front and back pages. "Madness," "humiliated," "disgraced," screamed the headlines while one paper asked "When will this flawed genius ever learn?" One reporter at the game described Beckham's challenge on Necaxa's Milian as 'a diabolically reckless tackle." Another reported the challenge as "vicious and high." "Quite why he launched a kung-fu kick at the player's thigh in a supposed challenge for a bouncing ball only he will know" came another observation from a reporter at the game. Bekham's ejection in such a high-profile event was a kind of throwback to Saint Etienne 1998. Seconds after the restart for the second half, he was floored by a charge in the back by Argentina's Diego Simeone and, while lying face down, petulantly kicked back, catching his opponent on the leg. With millions watching worldwide on TV, Beckham was shown the red card and England, down to 10 men and level at 2-2, was forced to play shorthanded for another 75 minutes before going out of the World Cup in a penalty shoot-out after extra time. Beckham was jeered by every non-Manchester United fan when the season resumed and some still abuse him now while he seems to have a camera following his every move. His plight even reached the courtroom. Two weeks ago, he appeared in court accused of speeding and pleaded innocent, stating that the reason he was over the speed limit was because he was trying to escape from an over-enthusiastic media photographer. At least he has an ally in Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, who also was "ejected" from the bench of protesting another decision by the referee. "The reaction of the Mexican players got him sent off," said the Scot. "The referee reacted to the Mexican players and that's disappointing. It was a 50/50 ball and they both had their feet in the air. "But the Mexican players tried to get him sent off and the referee has reacted to that." Ray Wilkins, a former Manchester United and England midfielder who now is a coach at Chelsea, also sprang to Beckham's defense by saying how well he had recovered from the headline catching expulsion at the World Cup. "He was obviously going to be under immense spotlight when he came back from the World Cup in 1998 but he has done wonderfully well to control his feelings on the field and last night was just one of those things," said Wilkins, who also played for Chelsea and AC Milan. "He has done very well indeed and I would say it was just a blip in an otherwise superb season for him. There is no question that he has matured so much." While the Manchester United dominated the headlines, his wife didn't miss out either on Friday after getting in some verbal tackles of her own. With her own chat show being screened for the first time on Friday, "Posh Spice" was quoted as calling super-model Naomi Campbell as a "a complete bitch" and "a massive cow." She also appeared to show very little interest in what her husband did for a living but at least had grasped the fact that he was an expert at bending free kicks into the net. "I do go to football sometimes," she said. "I don't know the offside rule or free kicks, or side kicks, or whatever they're called. "I know what he does. He kind of bends the ball that way or something, you know."
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