Dispatches from the North: Becks Faces Man U

A special Tuesday edition of Dispatches from the North can only mean one thing: David Beckham v Manchester United.

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If you have paid any attention to British sport news you will have already heard that tonight David Beckham will face his old club Manchester United for the first time in seven years. Now if like me you pay more attention to the OK Magazine side of Becks’ life you might be wondering first of all “I thought Becks played for LA Galaxy, why is he playing for AC Milan?” and “Why is Manchester United playing an Italian football team?” Let me explain to you the unique aspects of Becks’ football career as it stands now and attempt to make sense of it all from my uniquely female I-couldn’t-care-less-about-football perspective.

The Major League Soccer season starts in mid-spring and runs through to November whereas a Premier League player in Britain has a seemingly never-ending year round season with only a couple weeks off in August. I found this out the disappointing way when my husband grumbled that his team Hartlepool United was playing the last game of the season and I had a glimmer of hope when I thought I had a couple months off from football. I was sadly mistaken.  The truth is that with the number of leagues in Europe football in England never ends. It is a perpetual cycle of regular season league games as well as Champions League games and of course World Cup qualifier games plus all-star games and friendly (scrimmage) games between seasons.

Playing for the LA Galaxy meant that Becks wouldn’t be playing competitively for about 4 months out of the year while the rest of the top players in England continued to play virtually year round. Also the level of play in the American MLS league is feeble compared to the skill level of the players in the Premier League teams of England which are generally regarded as some of the best teams in the world despite England’s inability to win a World Cup in decades.

In order to remain competitive, the England team manager Fabio Capello required Beckham to keep up the same level of play as the rest of the team and the solution is that Beckham is on loan to AC Milan during the MLS off-season.  It works out quite well for the Beckhams, Posh gets a few months to play in her fashion mecca and Becks can keep up his end of the deal to remain on the England national team.

As I mentioned above, European football seems to be an endless tangled web of leagues. This particular game tonight is a UEFA Champions League game. The Champions League is an association of all the top teams in Europe and the Champions League Cup is one of the most globally sought after prizes in football. I know very little about football and all the various leagues kind of confuse me, so I won’t reinvent the wheel and just give you the link to the Wikipedia article about this league if you want to know more about it.

The press has been buzzing for days speculating how Becks will behave at tonight’s game.  The papers are rehashing his history with Man U and manager Sir Alex Ferguson but I have a hunch that despite all the hype about tensions between Becks and his old club, tonight’s game will be relatively uneventful. First of all, Becks tends to keep his eye on the ball (pun intended) and takes his playing seriously enough not to let any bad blood or controversy off the field distract him during an important game.  Also, seven years have passed and as professionals who constantly have to play alongside rivals and against friends, it is more than enough time for them to get over it. I am sure the tabloids would love to see a spat at tonight’s game but I just don’t see it happening. Regardless, the eyes of England will be on this game tonight and Becks’ every move and word will be analyzed and reported in tomorrow’s papers.