No social media ‘meant David Beckham was unaware of vitriol during his career’

Football star David Beckham “didn’t know what was being said about him” in the press while he was playing because social media did not exist, the co-founder of his content studio has said.

Nicola Howson, who co-founded Studio 99 with the former footballer, told the Edinburgh TV Festival his manager and father had told him not to look at what was printed about him in the media.

As a result, she said, he had not been aware of the “vitriol” directed against him.

This included an effigy of him being hung in London in 1998 after England’s World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina, in which he received a red card.

She added that he only learned about the effigy when Fisher Stevens, who directed the 2023 documentary series Beckham, showed it to him.

Ms Howson said: “He didn’t know what was being said about him back then because he had a manager that said don’t read it, and the dad who said it’s all nonsense.

“He hadn’t seen the effigy until Fisher showed it to him. What I’ll never forget about Fisher showing it to him that is that he’d never seen it.

“He’d never seen a lot of the vitriol because there wasn’t social media.”

She added that she did not know how modern players coped with the “vitriol” directed at them on social media.

“I don’t know how they cope now, if you’re of the kids who missed the penalties in the last Euros, or if you’re some of the players in the Euros this year, if you’re reading that on social media, day in, day out.

“I don’t care who you are, and how strong a person David Beckham is mentally. I don’t know how he would have done that.”

Ms Howson explained the background to the hit Netflix documentary Beckham, for which Stevens carried out 50 hours of interviews with Beckham and 20 hours with his wife