Skipper had to play for £3m match in Durban to go ahead

ENGLAND'S visit to South Africa would not have gone ahead without David Beckham.

It has been revealed that the controversial whistle-stop tour took place only after the FA guaranteed the captain would be in the party.

The FA and coach Sven Goran Eriksson had strongly denied that Beckham was required to make the trip. The player himself insisted he was keen to travel.

But Danny Jordaan former chief executive of the South African FA, has revealed the English FA secured a £3million windfall from their hosts and TV companies only by guaranteeing they could deliver Beckham.

"David Beckham had to be here, that is correct," said Jordaan, the most powerful man in South African football. "That was a stipulation of the deal."

The FA last night denied any deal had been done. But Jordaan's claims are set to cause ructions among the England squad, many of whom were reluctant to play in South Africa after a long, tiring season.

Unease among certain players in the England squad growing tired of Beckham's enormous power has also begun to surface.

The friendly clash in Durban, which England won 2-1, marked the official launch of South Africa's bid to host the 2010 World Cup, which Jordaan spearheads. Beckham went off with a broken scaphoid bone in his right wrist but Jordaan said: "He is a huge icon and the support for him here is unrivalled.

"For a young nation like South Africa we need to have role models, and this type of role model played a very important part in this deal.

"We knew that an England team would immediately bring Sky and Eurosport here and that would be televised around the world. But such an England team had to include Beckham."

Manchester United will almost certainly require an explanation from the FA after they objected to the player's presence on the trip.

But an FA spokesman insisted: "There was no contractual obligation to take any specific player to South Africa."

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