Real protect Beckham from British press

Real Madrid blocked the British press from attending Sunday's post-match press conference in a move to protect David Beckham after the flood of revelations about his personal life.

One journalist told AFP Monday that the ban was imposed a fortnight ago and covered not only Sunday's conference after the Barcelona match but also contact with players in the mixed zone after training sessions.

"We've tried to explain to Real that we're sports journalists, but Real's approach is that if newspapers publish stories about Beckham in the non-sports section all of the journalists working for that publication should be banned," he said on condition of anonymity.

But club director Jorge Valdano defended the policy.

"The other day I read everything that was published about our players. We don't have any defence against it. It's a business without any code or law," he said.

"One way of dealing with it is to punish the press by depriving them of any access even if that penalises their sports pages."

Despite their tough stance on the revelations about the England captain's reported affairs, Real were seen to be profiting themselves from the scandal.

During Sunday's game two giant screens in the Bernabeu stadium were carrying advertising for Interviu magazine using a picture of a scantily-clad Sarah Marbeck, one of Beckham's alleged mistresses.