BAKU, Oct 12: England's 1966 World Cup hero Geoff Hurst has accused David Beckham of tarnishing the country's reputation for fair play by admitting that he deliberately fouled an opponent to earn a convenient yellow card in last week's World Cup qualifier against Wales.

Beckham revealed in an interview on Tuesday that he had barged into Wales full-back Ben Thatcher knowing a yellow card would mean him being suspended for Wednesday's match in Azerbaijan - a match he knew he was going to miss anyway having broken his rib just minutes before the booking.

By serving the suspension, Beckham has his slate wiped clean for the rest of the campaign rather than having to play later matches knowing he was just one booking away from a ban.

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, while not condoning Beckham's conduct, suggested Tuesday that it was not unusual in modern football. Hurst insisted it would have been regarded as totally unacceptable for himself, his team-mates in the 1966 team and the World Cup winning manager, Sir Alf Ramsay.

"I can't imagine anyone in our team doing that. I come from a different planet," Hurst said on Tuesday. Asked what Sir Alf's reaction would have been if World Cup winning skipper Bobby Moore had behaved like Beckham, Hurst replied: "I can't comment on that, it's really poor."

Hurst, who scored a hat trick in the 1966 final win over Germany, said there could be a case for Beckham to be charged by FIFA with bringing international football into disrepute.

"If they've read that, they could say he's bringing the game into disrepute, I would argue he brings the country into disrepute." Hurst's comments will increase the pressure on England's Football Association to take some sort of action against Beckham.

"If they allow this to go on, it could set a precedent," Hurst added. "We are from a different era but it still can't be right, not last week, last month, 20 or 40 years ago. In principle it cannot be right."

Hurst is in Baku to unveil a statue of Tofik Bakhramov, the Azeri linesman who allowed the second of his three goals in the 1966 final to stand by ruling that his shot, which hit the cross bar and bounced down before it was cleared by the German defence, had crossed the line.

Scientists using modern-day imaging techniques have recently produced evidence that Bakhramov, a national hero in Azerbaijan, got it wrong and that the ball had not crossed the line. England have not reached another World Cup final since 1966. -AFP