STORM IN A TEA CUP?

"Stories of this so-called incident leave a little bit of a
sour taste. But I can hold my head up high, as I know the truth
of it. I cannot believe the fuss. It was all a misunderstanding
and settled straight away.

"We were playing pool and challenged two of the hotel staff to
a game. We said 'let's have a match, England v Spain'. But they
did not seem to understand what we were talking about. When we
asked them again, they called in these other blokes.

"It was ridiculous. We only wanted to play them in a friendly
match and suddenly they got upset. I can only put it down to
the fact they did not speak very good English. I don't know
what they thought we wanted but I can tell you we simply wanted
to play them in a game. It has all been blown up out of
proportion and was settled straight away before we even went to
bed.

"There has been such a big deal made out of something so minor.
I can't believe it. The trip was a great success for all of us
and we had an excellent relationship with all the staff."

It seems odd that he should give this interview to The Sun
considering that the allegations were published in the News of
the World, the Sun’s ‘sister paper’

FA spokesman Adrian Bevington said:

“We are aware of a minor misunderstanding which took place in
our private area of the team hotel at La Manga. However, we
strongly refute any suggestion of any kind of brawl involving
any player.”