Becks not 'political pawn' in Barca game

ONE of the key figures behind moves to bring David Beckham to Barcelona insists he and his colleagues have done everything by the book in their negotiations with Manchester United.

The Premiership champions conditionally accepted a bid for Beckham yesterday from Barca presidential candidate Joan Laporta and his backers.

The most crucial condition would appear to be Laporta winning Sunday's election, but Beckham's management company SFX insist the player is unhappy at being used as a "political pawn" and as a vote-winning device.

But Sandro Rosell the chief negotiator with United and set to be sporting director at the Nou Camp if Laporta wins the election defended the way he and his colleagues had handled the affair.

He said: "We are not using Beckham. We are first negotiating with the club who owns the player and this is what FIFA is asking people to do. All we are doing is following FIFA rules.

"We cannot reach agreement with the player until we have reached agreement with the club. We will then talk to the player if the supporters give us the vote. We will sit down with him and his managers and discuss our project for the club with them."

Asked if he was confident of Beckham signing for Barca, Rosell added: "If we win the elections there is a big possibility of that happening. We have not spoken to the player yet because we had first to speak to his club but I can imagine he will be more than happy to hear what we have to say."

Rosell admitted the Catalan club are struggling financially at present but is confident they can convince financial institutions to invest in the club, and that the only way forward is to try and sign the best players available.

He added: "The money will come from loans, some from banks. We have presented our project to many people and it is a very well-prepared project.

"For us to recover from our current financial situation the first thing we have to do is invest in the sporting project specifically we have to bring the best players in the world and players like Beckham are exactly what we are looking for."