Tehran, Sept 23: Mystery is afoot after Iran scrapped billboards featuring English soccer star and golden boy David Beckham, interrupting his reign as the first foreign celebrity advertiser since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Has Iran's latest engine oil promoter and Real Madrid's newest recruit fallen foul to Tehran's plummeting relations with Britain? Have Iran's leaders had enough of his burgeoning personality cult? Or is England's cleanest living football export corrupting Islamic decency?
The only thing that is certain is that Beckham, who scored the 100th top flight goal of his career Sunday, has been removed from three huge billboards at major traffic junctions in Tehran knocked up at the end of August.
Castrol GTX, the British oil company that used his charms to advertise engine oil, has confirmed its campaign is out of extra time.

The posters "were taken down without warning," the company's Tehran office told reporters. Television adverts showing a back view of Beckham, recognisable from his trade mark number seven and his ponytail, bending a well-oiled ball out of reach of a goalkeeper, have also been pulled.



Castrol, affiliated to British Petroleum (BP), says it has no idea why Beckham - one of the most magnetic stars among the young in Iran - has fallen from grace.



It has received no threats, reporting only that an effigy of the player has been "vandalised".


Bureau Report