David Beckham has insisted that his off-field activities did not disrupt his form for England during Euro 2004.
The England captain has rejected the suggestion his commercial roles had affected his performances during the tournament as England were knocked-out at the quarter-final stage to Portugal.
The Real Madrid midfielder has been heavily criticised for failing to meet his normally high standards of play but insisted that he will continue his corporate activities in the future.
"People say about the commercial activities. I do one or two every month and that's how it is," Beckham stated.
"The commercial side has never got in the way of my football and never will do. Obviously there are adverts and people have said about that this summer but that's the way it is.
"That part of my life and my career has never come in the way of my football and I will stand by that. The tiredness is down to the football, not to the commercial activities.
"I've got a launch of a soccer school now, but apart from that, that's it now for the summer."
Beckham admitted that England did not quite get their tactics right against the host nation but believes that he and his team-mates can hold their heads high.
"For the 90 minutes and the extra-time against Portugal, we maybe defended a little bit too much but you can't have any regrets after the game.
"Obviously we can all look at the things that could have happened and would have happened if situations had changed. But we can't go out of this competition and have excuses.
"We look at ourselves as a team and what we can do better and what we can change. That's what we have to look at. If other things, like Sol Campbell's disallowed goal had been allowed, we would have won. But it didn't.
"This team walked off that pitch with a lot of pride. It's not enough, I know, but we can't regret things." |
