7 Feb 2014

Beckham's Miami team due in 2017

12:56 pm on 7 February 2014

Footballer David Beckham's new team in Miami won't take the pitch until at least 2017, says the billionaire investor in the ambitious project.

The Peruvian entrepreneur Marcelo Claure, a major partner in Beckham's move into football club ownership, says there's simply too much to do in building a club from top to bottom.

There had been high hopes among Miami's football -starved community which has not had a top-level team for more than a decade that the as-yet-unnamed franchise might be ready in 2016.

Beckham, Claure and their ownership team paid $US25 million for the Major League Soccer franchise.