Enlarge imageLONDON (Reuters) - A photographic portrait of David Beckham has been defaced amid lingering frustration among England fans after their team was knocked out of the Euro 2004 tournament.
Vandals used a red marker pen to scrawl the words, "You loosers" on the five-foot (1.5 metre) high picture of Beckham that featured in an exhibition of the world’s greatest footballers at the Royal Academy of Arts.
The culprits misspelled "losers", using a double "o" in a possible reference to Rebecca Loos, the woman who claimed to have had an affair with the England captain.
The vandals also hit out at their new bete noire -- the Swiss referee Urs Meier -- by scribbling "Beckham and Meier, you loosers" on a wall opposite a portrait of Brazilian soccer legend Pele.
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Meier achieved notoriety among England fans when he disallowed a last-minute goal by defender Sol Campbell during England’s Euro 2004 quarter-final defeat by Portugal on Thursday. Beckham was also criticised for missing the target during a penalty shoot-out in the same match.
The portrait of Beckham, which had already been sold for 7,500 pounds, has been removed from the exhibition.
The exhibition’s curator, David Grob, said police are examining CCTV footage to try to identify those responsible.
"I’m absolutely furious," he said. "We spent around 18 months putting the exhibition together. You expect this sort of hooliganism to happen at a football ground, not at an art gallery."
The exhibition was held to mark the centenary of FIFA, world football’s governing body.
