Hurst fury at Beckham ploy

WORLD CUP hat-trick hero Geoff Hurst has accused David Beckham of "bringing the country into disrepute" in deliberately getting himself suspended for tonight's World Cup tie in Azerbaijan.

Hurst also insisted Alf Ramsey would have stripped Bobby Moore of the England captaincy if he had been so scheming. However, Sven-Goran Eriksson effectively ducked the issue, saying he would delay any direct comment until Thursday or Friday.

Eriksson did promise to take care of the situation and said it would not be "swept under the carpet", but he is determined to speak to Beckham first.

The England captain's views were clear enough in his ill-advised decision to tell the world he deliberately got booked against Wales after realising he would miss tomorrow's game through injury.

Beckham congratulated himself for his supposed "intelligence" arguing that "I'm sure some people think that I haven't got the brains to be that clever, but this shows that I do have the brains".

Sadly, he completely missed the point in that he could have injured either himself or Ben Thatcher, or could have got himself sent off following such a rash challenge and earned a three-game ban.

Intelligent players would either have got booked by throwing the ball away or, at least, not risked the wrath of Eriksson or FIFA in admitting to such underhand tactics afterwards.

At least FIFA president Sepp Blatter has not ordered an immediate investigation, merely commenting that he will be speaking to the Football Association.

The Football Association of Wales, meanwhile, have shown no signs of making any formal complaint, which could lead to a disrepute charge carrying a longer punishment.

Wales boss Mark Hughes said: "I am sure no-one went to deliberately hurt anybody. Ben has already said as much and so I don't think it is something that we should get too upset about."

Hurst, in Baku yesterday to unveil a statue of Azerbaijan linesman Tofik Bakhramov, who gave the hotly-disputed third goal in England's 1966 World Cup final win, nevertheless insisted: "It saddens me. You could argue, of course, that if FIFA have seen that, they might think it's bringing the game into disrepute. I would argue that it brings the country into disrepute."

"I can't possibly imagine that happening in our time."

Beckham was apparently angered by suggestions that his foul was "stupid" like his 1998 World Cup red card, or motivated by a desire to spend more time at home amid more allegations of adultery.

He therefore freely volunteered his confession to the Daily Telegraph in an exclusive telephone interview.

"I fouled Thatcher, it was deliberate. I knew straight away I had broken my ribs. I have done it before, so I thought: 'Let's get the yellow card out of the way'," he told the newspaper.

Eriksson had unwittingly observed shortly after Saturday's game that "maybe it's a good way of 'cleaning up' the yellow card".

However, the first he knew of Beckham's ill-advised comments was earlier yesterday from the Football Association who had seen the build-up to tomorrow's game hijacked by their absent captain.

Eriksson said: "I am sure about one thing - I don't think it's fair to the rest of the squad to talk about that problem now.

"We have a qualification game, so we will deal with that on Thursday or Friday. You'll have to wait until then to see what that means. If I'm criticised one time more, it's not a problem. I haven't yet got in contact with David and that's the first thing I will do before talking to the public about it.

"If I'm in danger of looking like I'm condoning it because I won't say anything until then, I will take that. I don't feel any more pressure on me."

Eriksson insisted England would miss Beckham's presence, while observing he "must be the most famous player ever, apart from possibly Maradona or Pele".

Then again, even he seemed to indicate the disruption to the squad caused by the latest controversy surrounding the England captain.

"We have a wonderful squad, it's getting stronger for each time we are together. It's younger and younger and the future for England is great," he said.

"Now and then, however, a problem pops up. And if a big problem doesn't pop up, we create it ourselves."

The FA's head of media, Adrian Bevington, said: "We will await Sven speaking with David before we have any further discussions on the subject. We believe we should all concentrate on this game."

If only. Beckham ensured that he may be temporarily out of sight, but he remains centre-stage in the England mind.