Glenn Hoddle opens up about how Beckham’s Netflix documentary hurt his family – Footymercato.com

Glenn Hoddle has spoken for the first time about the pain caused to his family by David Beckham’s Netflix documentary.

The former England manager says his daughters Zara, 37, and Zoe, 41, were so upset by Victoria’s comments that they took to the internet to defend him.

His girls posted a video showing their dad standing up for Beckham, now 48, in the aftermath of his sending off at the 1998 World Cup tournament in France.

The strong reaction came after Beckham’s mum Sandra and wife Victoria, 49, accused Hoddle of “throwing him under the bus” following the Three Lions’ ill-fated last-16 knockout tie against Argentina.

In an exclusive interview, Glenn, 66, said: “It probably affected my family more than me. I haven’t even seen it. They immediately sent out a video that showed me protecting David after the game, saying: ‘We can’t make him a scapegoat.’

“My daughters were not happy but if his documentary went well, good luck to him. He was a fantastic player and it was a shame what happened against Argentina, because it should have been a yellow card, never a red card.

“It was a bad bit of refereeing and that was the problem.”

The Tottenham and England legend opened up after last year’s hit Netflix documentary Beckham called his man management skills into question.

The documentary showed Beckham being vilified by football fans after the tournament, blaming him for the team’s early exit. One fan even hanged an effigy of the star.

In a press conference hours after the game, Hoddle said then-Manchester United star Becks would need to learn from his mistake after getting a red card for petulantly kicking out at Argentine hardman Diego Simeone.

In one clip, Victoria says of the fall-out: “Glenn Hoddle didn’t come out and try to protect him. And how old was David, 23? You’re a kid at 23.

“Glenn Hoddle was a man. I wouldn’t say a man, actually. He was an older person.”

Father-of-three Hoddle, who also has son Jamie, 32, from his first marriage, faced further criticism for not picking Beckham for the first game of the tournament against Tunisia, which they won 2-0.

Beckham had found out his future wife was pregnant just hours before the crunch game against Argentina, which caused some fans to label her a distraction.

But despite being the subject of his family’s wrath, Hoddle still refuses to criticise Becks or his loved ones. Asked if Victoria had a
negative influence on the squad, he said: “It wasn’t about that. David didn’t play the first game because I knew he wasn’t focused. His mind was somewhere else and I said to him that he will play a big part in the World Cup.

“But I wasn’t worried. He was one isolated person and as a manager you are looking at a group of players all the time. And David came in and did fantastically against Colombia with that fabulous free kick. He played exactly how we wanted him to play.”

Hoddle was dismissed as England manager in 1999 over controversial comments he made about disabled people being punished for sins in a past life.

He went on to work as a TV pundit and was in the BT Sports studio when he suffered a cardiac arrest on his 61st birthday in 2018. He was rushed to hospital and surgeons performed a quadruple bypass.

The ex-midfielder – who also coached Chelsea, Swindon and Spurs as a manager – is now fronting a campaign with Well Pharmacy calling on football fans to watch what they eat and have their blood pressure checked regularly.