Does David beckham deserve another shot at leading his nation to glory? Although this is the Great Britain olympic squad and not the england national side there is no denying Beckham has been a fantastic ambassador for the beautiful game. At 36 years of age will his legs last him for what will undoubtedly be an intense competition. His form for L.A. Galaxy this season in the MLS has been nothing short of suberb and one last hoorah in his home country would be the ideal setting for Beckham once more to show that at his best he is one of the best dead ball specialists in the world. I for one would relish seeing Beckham perform once more at Wemble Staduim in what undoubtebly be his final swansong.

Thanks to www.bbc.sport for this entry.

David Beckham on course for London 2012 football team

David Beckham's hopes of playing for Team GB at the 2012 Olympic Games remain on course.

The former England captain, who will be 37 by the start of the Games, is among 80 players told by the FA they are in contention for a place in the squad.

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2012 Olympic Games - 100 Days To Go

Wales' Gareth Bale and Craig Bellamy, 32, are on the list, as is Northern Ireland midfielder Chris Brunt, 27.

Wolves forward Steven Fletcher, 24, who has fallen out of favour with Scotland boss Craig Levein, also features.

Liverpool's Joe Cole, 30, currently on loan with Lille, is listed, but only three over-age players are allowed in what is otherwise a tournament for Under-23s.

Assuming Beckham is fit, it is understood there is an eagerness on both sides for him to feature.

Privately Beckham, aware he will not add to his 115 England caps, has expressed a desire to finish his international career on a greater high than a substitute's role against Belarus in 2009.

Having helped to bring the Games to London in 2005, he is eager to be involved in some way.

The draw for the Olympic tournament takes place at Wembley on Tuesday, 24 April and, although representatives from all four Home Nations are included on the list, the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish FAs oppose the concept of a united Great Britain team.

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The original list contained 191 names. Manager Stuart Pearce now has to cut the 80 names down to 35 players by 8 June and submit a final squad of 18 players, plus four reserves, by noon on 6 July.

Pearce will be unable to select anyone who plays for England at Euro 2012.

Birmingham City goalkeeper Jack Butland, currently on loan with Cheltenham Town, is still in contention - as is Chelsea midfielder Josh McEachran.

Crystal Palace defender Nathaniel Clyne is included, while Northern Ireland's Chris Brunt, who plays for West Bromwich Albion, also makes the list of 80.

In excess of 50,000 tickets have been sold for the opening game at Old Trafford on 26 July and a double-header friendly featuring both the men's and women's teams will be confirmed for a date in July, with the event expected to take place in the north east.

Rafael Benitez on the verge of leaving liverpool!!

Thanks to bbc sport for this...

Reds manager Rafael Benitez on verge of Liverpool exit

Benitez's Liverpool struggled for form during the 2009/10 season Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is on the verge of leaving the club, BBC Sport understands. Benitez will be offered a multi-million pound severance deal to quit Anfield and could depart by the weekend. The Spaniard, 50, signed a five-year contract in March 2009, but failed to deliver success last season as the club missed out on a Champions League place. Liverpool are £351m in debt and were put up for sale by co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett earlier this year. The American pair's ownership of the Reds has drawn protests from Liverpool fans, who are unhappy with the way the club is being run. Now news of Benitez's impending departure will inevitably lead to question marks over the futures of several key players. Captain Steven Gerrard, star forward Fernando Torres and Argentina midfielder Javier Mascherano have all recently being linked with summer moves elsewhere. BBC sports news correspondent Dan Roan said Benitez was "certain to leave" Liverpool. "The board are in discussions with the manager about him leaving immediately," said Roan. "A severance deal has been offered to Benitez and it is worth significantly more than the £3m that has been reported - he is entitled to £16m as a result of the contract he signed last year." "Benitez is currently on holiday but if he decides to accept their offer he could be out by the weekend." Benitez's agent, Manuel Garcia Quilon, said he would speaking to the former Valencia boss on Thursday, adding: "We don't know anything more than what's being said. We're not saying anything." Benitez has been linked to Italian giants Inter Milan, who are looking for a coach following Jose Mourinho's move to Real Madrid. Liverpool have refused to comment on the future of their manager. "The club are concerned that details being leaked out could undermine the severance deal," added Roan. "Significantly, no replacement has so far been approached, but that process is sure to begin shortly." Academy director Kenny Dalglish, who won three league titles as manager at Anfield between 1985 and 1991, is believed to have been lined up as an interim replacement. Fulham manager Roy Hodgson and Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill mentioned as potential targets to take over in the long-term. Benitez replaced Gerard Houllier at Anfield in June 2004 and enjoyed a successful start to his tenure as Liverpool won the Champions League the following season. But they could only finish seventh in the Premier League last term despite finishing as runners-up to Manchester United the previous season. As well as the Champions League triumph, Benitez also steered Liverpool to the European Super Cup in 2005 and the FA Cup in 2006. But the inconsistency of last season, where they lost 11 times in the league and exited the Champions League in the group stages, seems to have been a turning point. Benitez had suggested he would require in excess of £50m to put the club back in contention for Champions League qualification, let alone the Premier League title, while co-owner Hicks recently said the Spaniard would have a "substantial" transfer budget this summer. However, Benitez looks destined to leave, despite telling the Liverpool Echo recently that he wanted to stay at Anfield "for a long time".

Mexico 86, the best world cup??

An excellent blog from Bradley King has underlined to me how much coverage of the beautiful game has changed a lot since I was a lad. I am only 35 years of age now but the volume of football on television is just staggering. The only games shown live when I was a young boy were the F.A. Cup Final and the England v Scotland international so as you can imagine we were pretty starved of coverage as youngsters. The exception to the rule was the FIFA World cup, wall to wall footie it was amazing to someone like me who loved the game. My first world cup was Mexico 86, maradona's hand of god, gary lineker with his wrist cast, mexico being pretty rubbish, spectacular long range goals from the soviet union and the germans getting to yet another final beating the fabulous french team on the way. It was an excellent world cup and I pretty much watched every game, I still remember watching the England v Poland match on my small black and white portable with the sound down, as you can imagine it was hard to stop myself screaming when Mr lineker scored his wonderful hat trick. The tournament progressed and probably the best game apart from the final itself was the quarter final between Brazil and France a magnificent game which ebbed and flowed before the game was decided on penalties, I vividly remember Zico missing a penalty in the 90 mins. I felt a certain sadness when the tournament was over and Argentina were crowned World champions I dont think I have witnessed a world cup since which has excited me as much as that one did. South Africa has a lot to live up to and heres hoping that as a spectacle it can live up to the magic of Mexico 86..

The official 23 man squad for the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa

Well here it is folks fabio's squad for the world cup what do we all think??

England World Cup squad in full: J Hart, D James, R Green; J Carragher, A Cole, R Ferdinand, G Johnson, L King,J Terry, M Upson, S Warnock; G Barry, M Carrick, J Cole, S Gerrard, F Lampard, A Lennon, J Milner, S Wright-Phillips; P Crouch, J Defoe, E Heskey, W Rooney.

Official announcement at 15:00 bst.....

Totally unnacceptable start to our world cup campaign. The official announcement will now be at 3pm this afternoon, why do we always make life so difficult for ourselves with this cloak and dagger treatment of the english press, ah well the rumours are still coming strong, Emile Heskey and Jermaine Defoe the latest confirmations...

Shaun wright Phillips in and so is Stephen Warnock

Again according to those reliable people down at Sky Sports, Shaun Wright Phillips (bet his dad is glad) and Stephen Warnock have made the plane to South Africa, Leighton Baines it appears is sadly missing out..