Tottenham Hotspur and David Beckham’s Los Angeles Galaxy are planning closer ties that could lead to players crossing the Atlantic in both directions.
Tim Leiweke, president of the American sports and entertainment giant AEG, which owns the Galaxy and is bidding in partnership with Spurs to take over the London 2012 Olympic stadium after the Games, told reporters the two sides were forging a strategic alliance.
“We have an existing relationship now with Tottenham where we are beginning to think outside the box on football and how we do things together on football,” he said in a conference call from Los Angeles.
“Whether that’s David Beckham training [with Spurs] or maybe players from Tottenham coming to the Galaxy, playing games against each other.
“Strategically you’ll see more of an alliance between us and Tottenham long term,” added Leiweke.
Former England captain Beckham (35) has been training with north London side Tottenham but hopes of a short-term loan deal during the Major League Soccer (MLS) close season have come to nothing.
Cooperation
Leiweke said he wanted Beckham back in Los Angeles for the start of the season.
“I am the one that made the decision in asking David to come back and play a full season in MLS because we haven’t been able to do that, be it for loans or injury,” he said.
“Our commitment has been ‘David, you need to be back here for the MLS season that begins in March’.
“It is because we have asked for that commitment, and the timeline in Tottenham was such, that it was very difficult for them [Spurs] to figure out a way to integrate David into the team,” he added.
Leiweke said AEG had encouraged Beckham to go to Tottenham because of the relationship with Spurs chairperson Daniel Levy.
“There are other examples of conversations we’ve had with Daniel in how to take that kind of cooperation and now extend it to our team in the United States,” he added.
“You are going to hear more about that in the future but part of what has been created here is a strategic alliance between AEG and Tottenham on thinking about how we can be involved in Tottenham the football club.” — Reuters