Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has strenuously denied Sol Campbell's claim that he would have been captain of the national team "for more than 10 years" had he been white.

Campbell, who played 73 times for his country, claims in his new book that the Football Association and the majority of fans do not want a black England skipper.

The 39-year-old said: "I believe if I was white, I would have been England captain for more than 10 years - it's as simple as that.

"I think the FA wished I was white.

"I had the credibility, performance-wise to be captain.

"I've asked myself many times why I wasn't. I keep coming up with the same answer. It was the colour of my skin."

However, Eriksson, who selected Campbell 32 times during his five-year reign, insisted that David Beckham was his choice as captain for pure footballing reasons.

"From my first to my last game, I had David Beckham as captain and there were never, ever any discussions at all in the team or in the FA about the captain," he said.

The FA are not planning to respond directly to the allegations, but former FA executive director David Davies, who was at the organisation when Campbell was a player, said he was "surprised" by the claims and believed they were "wrong."

"I am surprised by this because the reality is that in my time the managers selected the captain," Davies told BBC Radio 5.

"I never - and to my knowledge nobody else in the FA - ever sought to influence them."