According to David McDonnell, David Beckham wrapping the green and gold scarf around his neck was no accident.

After the match between Manchester United and AC Milan at Old Trafford, Beckham picked up a green and gold scarf from the turf and put it around his neck.

The green and gold campaign has been started by United fans as a form of protest against the club's owners - the Glazer family. The colours are the ones United wore when they were known as Newton Heath.

Although Beckham denied any intention of showing his support for the protestors, McDonnell, the Manchester columnist for the Daily Mirror, thought otherwise.

McDonnell wrote: "Only David Beckham, with his unique capacity for self-promotion, could have stolen the show after AC Milan's 4-0 mauling at Manchester United, by plucking a scarf from the Old Trafford turf.

"This, of course, was no ordinary scarf. It was green and gold, the now iconic symbol of the anti-Glazer movement which has gathered such momentum in recent weeks and months."

Beckham later claimed that he had picked up the scarf merely as a gesture to show he supports Manchester United as a team. McDonnell however, was having no truck with the claim.

"The most iconic sportsman in the world knows more than anyone the power of pictures, and it was no coincidence the scarf he scooped up was green and gold, rather than the traditional red, white and black of United," he observed.

McDonnell firmly believes that even Beckham wants the Glazers out.

"Beckham, more than anyone, knows the significance of draping the green and gold scarf around his neck at the final whistle, and the message such an image sends out acorss the world - even David Beckham wants the Glazers out of Old Trafford."

"Those behind the green and gold campaign could not have dreamed of such a high-profile figure endorsing their cause with such a visual display of support."

Perhaps the only figure the protestors might have picked over Beckham would be Sir Alex Ferguson himself.

"Short of Fergie striding down the touchline to the dugout, wrapped up against the elements in green and gold, it doesn't get much bigger than that.

"Joel and Avram Glazer, United's co-chairmen, will have been shifting uncomortably in their seats in the Old Trafford directors' box on Wednesday, as they were left in no doubt of the scale of the opposition towards their ownership of the club."

And with Beckham on board, despite his unconvincing attempts to distance himself from the rebel movement, there seems little respite ahead for the beleaguered Americans," concluded the columnist.