Sven-Goran Eriksson had a falling out with Victoria Beckham at the 2006 World Cup as the WAGS took over Baden-Baden. The wives and girlfriends of the Three Lions indeed became the centre of a media frenzy in the German spa town, with even Victoria admitting in retrospect that things might have gotten a bit too lively.
The tabloids had a field day chronicling the escapades, as the women partied with abandon and chalked up enormous bills at bars and boutiques across town. Eriksson opened up in a refreshingly frank interview with Boyle Sports World Cup about the distractions caused by the players' partners, pointing out: "One of the wives [at the World Cup] was Victoria Beckham and of course, that didn't make it easier, it made it fantastic for the press.
"But all the other countries, Sweden for example, I knew exactly what they did with their wives and so on. I don't think any Swedish paper ever talked about it because it's natural and I think most of the teams were doing that. We saw the wives maybe once a week at dinner and I decided when that should be."
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Sven further unveiled that the scrutiny became excessive, saying: "The rest of the days of course the wives were invited here and there and the FA helped them not to be sat in a hotel, bored, and I think that was great. Whatever they did it was a scandal
"If they went to a bar, if they went to a restaurant if they went out shopping, they were [doing] totally normal things I found the reaction a little bit unhelpful." Years after the World Cup fiasco, football legend Rio Ferdinand admitted: "We became a bit of a circus.
"Football almost became a secondary element to the main event. People were worrying more about what people were wearing or where people were going than the England football team. Beckham believed wives should be there."
Despite some fans blaming the WAGs for England's early departure from the World Cup due to Portugal, ex-FA executive David Davies countered: "In Baden-Baden, a lot of people had a lot of fun but it did not cost us the World Cup."
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