Galaxy to take Beckham to England

LA Galaxy's David Beckham is likely to be back playing in England next year as part of a money-spinning series of matches organised by his new club.

Galaxy have already lined up a lucrative friendly in Australia.

And Tim Leiweke, chief executive and president of the Anschutz Entertainment Group - who own LA Galaxy, said further games in England are planned.

Chelsea, who play Galaxy in a friendly on Sunday, are understood to be working towards a friendly in London in 2008.

Beckham is set to make his Galaxy debut against the Blues at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, on Saturday in front of a 27,000 sell-out audience.

Leiweke admitted he was interested in taking the team overseas, and added: "It's more than likely we're going to take a trip over to 'Jolly Old' England and do a game or two."

Reports suggest the exhibition games could be worth around six million dollars (£3m) a game and Leiweke admitted that is not a long way off the mark.

He said: "I think the greatest opportunity for the Galaxy is touring and doing international matches.

"I don't think it is six million dollars a game but I think it could be a pretty good percentage of that.

"And if you can do six games a year, that can add a significant amount of value to the team and its revenue."

LA Galaxy will play Sydney FC at the 83,500-seat Telstra Stadium on 27 November and Leiweke is keen to exploit the possibility of further matches in Asia as well as England.

"We have the Australian dates locked," he added.

"We have a couple of dates in the US that we're going to do and we're mindful of giving David some rest so we're trying to be a little focused on making sure we don't overload the schedule this year.

"We're still focused on training in Asia and doing games there next year at the beginning of the season."

Meanwhile, Beckham has told his new Los Angeles Galaxy team-mates to use Real Madrid as the inspiration for turning around their season.

Galaxy have won just three games in the league so far this season and were knocked out of the US Open Cup by a semi-professional side two divisions beneath the MLS.

Frank Yallop's men are second from bottom in the MLS Western standings, although they do have games in hand on most of the teams around them.

Beckham said: "It doesn't concern me at all.

"Halfway through the season, people were saying in Spain that we were never going to win La Liga and we ended up winning La Liga.

"Things at the moment here with the Galaxy are tough and we're not doing that well in the league.

"But you have to take in to consideration that we have had players out injured and on international duty and now they're back."