Curbishley, Friedel and Thomas to join the GB Squad Debate at Soccerex

Thu 24th Mar 2011 | Football Industry Events

Soccerex are pleased to announce that Olympic Medal winner Iwan Thomas MBE will be joining a special session at next week’s Soccerex European Forum, 30-31 March, Manchester, including Aston Villa and ex-USA goalkeeper Brad Friedel, Rachel Ely, Football Competition Manager, London 2012 Organising Committee and Alan Curbishley, former Charlton Athletic and West Ham manager, to look at the viability of a GB team participation in the competition for the first time in 40 years.

Titled “Olympic Football and the GB Squad Debate” the session will start with a presentation from Rachel Ely on the 2012 Olympic football tournament before the remaining speakers move on to discuss the inclusion of a GB football squad in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Currently the English Football Association is set to manage the GB team but the Irish, Scottish and Welsh are unwilling for their players to participate due to worries over losing their individual statuses in the eyes of FIFA. This would deprive the likes of Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey and Darren Fletcher of the opportunity to compete in the tournament, and deprive fans of seeing a united team for the first time in 40 years.

Iwan Thomas will give his first hand experience of competing in the Olympics having won a Silver medal in the 1996 Games in Atlanta as well as Gold medals in the World Championships, European Championships and EAA European Cup. As well as representing Great Britain he also represented Wales in the Commonwealth Games, where he again won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.

Having competed both for Wales and Great Britain, Iwan will add an interesting perspective to the discussions, especially with Wales due to face England in the hotly anticipated Euro 2012 Championship qualifying match this Saturday - something sure to be touched upon by the two other panellists.

Iwan will be joined by Aston Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel, who has represented his country in three FIFA World Cup tournaments as well as the 1992 Olympic Games. The former Charlton Athletic and West Ham manager Alan Curbishley will be the final member of the panel, drawing on his years of player and management experience in English football.

This highly topical subject is part of a diverse agenda reflecting the latest issues in European Football including Financial Fair Play, sponsorship, rights holder relationships, digital media and fan interaction and International FA development.

For further information about this event please call +44 (0)208742 7100 or visit www.soccerex.com/europe.

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