David Beckham has once again been passed over by the New Year's Honours list despite being hotly tipped due to his service to sport and several charities.
And it comes seven years after a similar snub allegedly sparked a series of furious emails between Beckham, 45, and his long-time PR man Simon Oliveira.
After helping front the London Olympics and devoting large portions of his time to charities such as UNICEF, many expected the former footballer would be made a Sir in 2014.
But it was claimed that his involvement with an film finance scheme that HMRC considered to be tax avoidance had raised a 'red flag' and scuppered his chances.
There was no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of those who invested in the Ingenious Media scheme, and in emails leaked in 2017, Beckham apparently told Oliveira, "everything is above board."
And the following year he paid £12.7 million in tax according to the Sunday Times Tax List, placing him and wife Victoria at number 49 of the country's 50 biggest tax payers.
But after his name was famously missing from the 2014 list, the emails purporting to be from Beckham were published by website Football Leaks - the sporting equivalent of Wikileaks.
In them, David allegedly launched into an angry rant about the perceived snub, branding the committee a 'bunch of c****' and the honours system a "f**king joke".
He apparently wrote: "I expected nothing less. It's a disgrace to be honest and if I was American I would of got something like this 10 years ago."
David was also alleged to have questioned why classical singer Katherine Jenkins had been given an OBE for, "singing at the rugby and going to see the troops plus taking coke. F**king joke".
In response, Katherine's spokesperson said the singer was awarded the honour for her services to charity and music and she had "courageously publicly admitted" experimenting with cocaine as a student in her early twenties.
Her manager, Professor Jonathan Shalit, told The Sun: "I say Katherine was awarded an OBE for her services to music and charity.
"With regards to the taking of coke which Katherine has courageously publicly admitted with great honesty - this was when she was in her early 20s still studying, over a decade before she was awarded her OBE and started her recording career."
David also appeared to refuse Oliveira's suggestion to donate $1million to a UNICEF event, complaining: "The f***ing money is mine."
David has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the charity since 2003 and launched his 7 fund for UNICEF in 2015.
Responding to the emails, a spokesperson for the charity said: "David has given significant funds personally."
At the time, Beckham's rep said the emails had been 'doctored', telling the Daily Mail: "This story is based on outdated material taken out of context from hacked and doctored private emails from a third-party server and gives a deliberately inaccurate picture."
And addressing the leak, a friend of the star told The Mirror Beckham regretted sending the messages but had done so "in the heat of the moment".
“Genuinely, he wasn’t as vitriolic as that, but you do say some things in private and in the heat of the moment," the source said.
“To be honest, he does feel that he has given so much to his country. And sometimes you say things in private that anyone would say and you don’t really mean it.
“While he was frustrated in those emails, he was over it the moment he sent them.
“Getting the knighthood is not what his work is about. He doesn’t care if he gets a knighthood or not.”
