David Beckham is playing down his confrontation with an intruder in the England dressing room at the World Cup, but football's governing body is taking the security breach seriously.
An England fan eluded security and made it into the team's changing room after the 0-0 draw against Algeria in Cape Town on Friday night. Ten minutes earlier, British royals Princes William and Harry had been in the rooms visiting the players.
Beckham said the fan casually walked in, said something derogatory to him and walked out again.
``Luckily it was after the princes had left, 10 minutes after,'' the former England captain said in an interview Saturday.
``Obviously it has been blown out of proportion. The actual fan literally just walked in very casually and just said something to me and then walked out. There was no scuffle, there was no aggression at all. He didn't comment on the performance.''
Beckham was speaking at a Football Association reception attended by the two princes, who are following England's World Cup progress.
Prince William, who is second in line to the British throne, joked that he and his brother might have been responsible for the fan getting into the room.
``Harry and I had left the door open, it was our fault,'' he said.
Beckham said the princes went to the changing room to give the players a lift after a lackluster performance against the Algerians, who are considered one of the weakest teams in the 32-man tournament.
``I think what the princes have done coming in after the game lifted the guys last night,'' said Beckham, who is traveling with the England team despite being ruled out of the World Cup due to injury. ``It took our minds off the game half an hour after the game. The guys were a little bit more relaxed.''
Many of the 25,000 England fans in Green Point Stadium jeered the players after Friday's performance, which left the team in danger of being eliminated. Level on points with the United States and with only one more than Algeria, England has to beat group leader Slovenia to reach the last 16.
England striker Wayne Rooney was upset with the reaction of fans and made a comment to a TV camera as he walked off the field. He issued an apology Saturday.
Beckham paid tribute to the England followers.
``The fans are incredible. They have supported us everywhere in world and will continue to do that,'' he said. ``Hopefully we can win this game and then go through and start enjoying it.''
Despite Beckham's insistence that the incident was low key, FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot said that security would be tightened around teams in a bid to avoid a recurrence.
The local organizing committee says it is waiting for police to investigate the incident and provide a report.
Organizers added that the fan was in the room for a few seconds before being led out, but would not comment upon reports that he had then been released and his identity was unknown.
