FA denies £1m Beckham pay off

Suggestions in the media that by guaranteeing David Beckham's participation in the recent friendly international against South Africa, the FA would receive cash payments from the SAFA and television companies are completely false, the nation's governing body has said.

"The FA is extremely distressed by today's allegations," The FA's Head of Media Relations Adrian Bevington said.

"There has been no 'secret payment' for David Beckham's or any other player's appearance in South Africa. The FA would never name individual players in specific match contracts and it did not do so on this occasion.

"The FA, together with Danny Jordaan and SAFA, now intend to investigate the origin and portrayal of this wholly inaccurate and damaging story." England won the match in Durban 2-1 thanks to a second half strike from Liverpool's Emile Heskey, but Beckham had to be substituted after 50 minutes with a wrist injury.

"At no time in our negotiations with the South African federation did we ever agree to guaranteeing the availability of any of our players for the game played in Durban last Thursday," Bevington continued.

"How could we have done so when, clearly at the time we negotiated the contract, Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle could still have been involved in the Champions League final next Wednesday night?

"We have never included such a clause in any of our contracts and have no plans to do so in the future. We have a copy of the contract that was signed and no part of it bears any relation to such a clause. We are therefore very upset by suggestions that we agreed to certain guarantees to include any named individuals in our team."