Own goal

David Beckham has a point to prove. The England football captain wants people to know that his blundering challenge that won a cautionary yellow card against Wales on Saturday was no act of impetuosity, but proof of intellectual distinction. He will use up his suspension against Azerbaijan today - a match he would have missed anyway because of injury.

David Beckham has a point to prove. The England football captain wants people to know that his blundering challenge that won a cautionary yellow card against Wales on Saturday was no act of impetuosity, but proof of intellectual distinction. He will use up his suspension against Azerbaijan today - a match he would have missed anyway because of injury.

This is a surprisingly Machiavellian approach to the game, but hardly worthy of the moralistic furore it has provoked. "I am sure some people think I have not got the brains to be that clever," he says, in a robust defence of his actions. Of course, it would have been wiser to have won the booking and kept quiet. As it is, he has simply confirmed his limitations.