Beckham gets $1000 Fine for Fan Confrontation, But He Won’t Apologize

By: Laurie | July 24th, 2009

Kudos to MLS for (finally) doing what needed to be done. Or at least a part of what needed to be done.

NEW YORK (July 23, 2009) – Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber today fined Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham $1,000 for his interaction with a fan at halftime of his team’s 2-2 draw against AC Milan in an exhibition match on July 19.

“We support our players interacting with fans, whether it is at clinics, charity events or by high-fiving their supporters in the stands while celebrating a goal,” Garber said. “However, our players should never engage in conduct that can be interpreted as encouraging fans to come out of the stands and onto the field, regardless of the reason.”

Or, as the excellent Canadian blog 24th Minute says:

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?

YESSSSSSS!!!

(They’re being a bit ironic, given that $1000 for Beckham is less than a cup of coffee for folks like you and me. Or at least me.) If MLS was really serious about this, they’d levy fines as a percentage of pay — or better yet, overall income — so that Beckham’s $1000 fine would hurt him twice as much as Brian Ching’s $500 fine for unauthorized tweeting. (Although aren’t fines spelled out in the collective bargaining agreement with the union? So I think this was all they could do.)

Video of the events in question is in this post. Beckham claims that he just wanted to shake hands, but multiple witnesses saw things differently.

“I just tried to go over and shake one of their hands and tell them to calm down,” Beckham said.

When a reporter told Beckham he was sitting with the fans and that it had not sounded as if Beckham was so conciliatory, Beckham said, “Then you don’t need to ask me that question.”

Not exactly the response of a guy who’s interested in being truthful or doing the right thing.

And yesterday Beckham said that he didn’t owe anybody an apology, because everything was the fault of the fans and he was the true victim.

“It’s not a setback for myself,” he said after the Galaxy’s training session Thursday, according to the Associated Press. “It’s other people that have to change. It’s not about whether I can move on. I wasn’t the one booing.”

Beckham, who has incurred the Galaxy fans’ displeasure for his ongoing flirtation with AC Milan, said he was unhappy that one of his children had witnessed the scenes.

“I don’t like my son seeing that and hearing that,” he said. “From an organized group of fans, I think it was disrespectful.”

I find it odd that he’s refusing to even acknowledge anything he and his people have done that’s damaged the team, like the 2008 backdoor takeover of the Galaxy by Brand Beckham’s (and American Idol’s) 19 Entertainment, his best friend Terry Byrne’s secret consulting job with the team, his own phoned-in performance after Byrne got fired, or his well-documented and ultimately unsuccessful behind-the-scenes maneuvering to escape LA permanently for AC Milan.

And now none of what happened the other night is his fault.

It’s bizarre. It’s like he’s decided to pretend — and even to force himself to believe — that none of this ever happened, and that anybody who implies differently (like the fan group LA Riot Squad), are the ones who are wrong. And not just wrong, but “disrespectful.”

Thanks, MLS, for finally deciding not to play along.