United deny the Real deal for Beckham

Manchester United last night issued an emphatic denial to a Sunday newspaper report claiming that David Beckham will join Real Madrid in a £38m deal this summer. A report in the Mail on Sunday claims a deal between the two clubs for the 27-year-old England captain is virtually sealed, quoting "a top-level source" as saying: "Everyone here is desperately trying to keep it under wraps until the season has completed."

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson believes the stories linking Beckham to Real are timed to coincide with the Champions' League quarter-final between the clubs. A club spokesman insisted: "This story is categorically untrue."

United's Spanish reserve goalkeeper Ricardo fuelled the speculation before the Champions' League quarter-final first leg tie at the Bernabeu – which Real won 3-1 – when he claimed Beckham had asked him about the quality of Madrid schools.

Beckham's value to Real would be as much for his huge commercial muscle, especially in the Far East, as for his talent on the field. The Madrid giants are keen to upstage United in the global marketing and merchandising battle. In recent years Real have always got their man with Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and Ronaldo recruited.

Real may also have been encouraged by the dressing room incident between Ferguson and Beckham after United's FA Cup defeat by Arsenal, which left the player sporting a cut above the eye.

Meanwhile, Manchester City's veteran Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel is to retire at the end of the season. The 39-year-old former United keeper says in his newspaper column today: "You're supposed to wake up every morning and look forward to the challenges of the day but now my body is not happy any more. I'd always promised I'd move on when this moment arrived. It has taken a month of soul-searching to make this decision, the most difficult of my career."

Two months ago a nagging calf injury forced the keeper out of the Manchester derby. He had left United in 1999 after eight years and much success with the club including a Champions' League win that year, saying he wanted somewhere less hectic. But a move to Sporting Lisbon was followed by a return to England and Aston Villa.

The former Spurs striker and players' union chairman Garth Crooks has been appointed a commissioner of the Independent Football Commission, the new regulator for the football industry. The IFC received a mixed response to their first 22 recommendations from the football bodies in a meeting last week.

The commission are tomorrow expected to reject a complaint by the Wimbledon Independent Supporters' Association about the club moving to Milton Keynes. The IFC say that the issue could have been handled better, but that the Football League and the Football Association acted within their procedures.