Ferguson relents on Beckham issue

David Beckham and Nicky Butt will travel to Dubai on Monday afternoon with the rest of the England World Cup squad after Alex Ferguson last night relented in an increasingly tense stand-off between the Manchester United manager and his England counterpart Sven-Goran Eriksson. It will be seen as Eriksson's first victory of England's summer campaign.

Ferguson and Eriksson had reached very different conclusions as to where Beckham and Butt's recuperation from injury would be best continued, Manchester or Dubai. But both men knew that Beckham and Butt do not officially come under Eriksson's control until next week.

The England squad fly to Dubai for a week of rest, light training and acclimatising on Monday but Ferguson had initially been insistent that his players would remain under the eyes of the Manchester United medical staff at United's training ground at Carrington.

Eriksson and the English FA were even willing to take members of the United medical team with them to Dubai as a way of persuading Ferguson to release his players, and the England captain Beckham was certainly keen to be on the plane.

But it was not until United's chief executive Peter Kenyon became involved late yesterday that the situation was resolved to Eriksson's satisfaction.

Tord Grip, Eriksson's assistant, said that Beckham would soon need to start running, having already done some work in the gym, and there is confidence that both players will be available to Eriksson when England's first Group F game comes three weeks tomorrow (June 2nd) against Sweden in Saitama.

The revelation of the England players' shirt numbers yesterday produced few surprises but Eriksson denied they indicated which players would start against Sweden.

With the exception of the number nine Robbie Fowler, numbers one to 11 are almost exactly the team expected to line up against Eriksson's homeland. Kieron Dyer of Newcastle, number 23, the only player likely to be in the first XI without a corresponding shirt, is favourite to start in left midfield.

Meanwhile, legal action against the FIFA president Sepp Blatter was started yesterday by 11 members of the organisation's executive committee.

The UEFA president Lennart Johansson, leader of the anti-Blatter campaign, said in a hard-hitting joint statement with four other FIFA vice-presidents: "The refusal of the FIFA president to resign his post, despite the evidence before the executive committee, left us with no choice but to retain the services of a Swiss law firm.

"We have now been advised that the facts brought forward by the FIFA general secretary (Michel Zen-Ruffinen) most likely do constitute various criminal offences and that we are obliged to refer these to the appropriate authorities."

The proceedings are expected to start before May 29th.

Guardian Service

Manchester United's John O'Shea and Thomas Butler of Sunderland will join the Republic of Ireland squad in Toulon tomorrow having been involved in their clubs' final Premiership games today and will be available for Ireland's somewhat meaningless third game of the Toulon Festival against South Africa on Monday.

The Juan Sebastian Veron saga has taken another twist with his close friend and new Lazio coach Roberto Mancini saying he'd be "very happy" if Veron returned to Italy. "I have had lunch with Veron today," Mancini said yesterday. "He is a great player, but at this time he is still a Manchester player."

Deportivo La Coruna beat Real Madrid 3-0 last night which means that they pip Real for second place in the Primera Liga and that Real will have to qualify for the Champions League next season unless they beat Bayer Leverkusen in this year's final.

Guardian Service