Stuart Pearce to take charge of GB football team for Olympics

Many of Pearce's England Under-21's will form the bulk of the squad for London 2012 such as Josh McEachran, Jack Rodwell and Jack Wilshere.

There are many names in consideration for this job but it seems that the FA has settled on Pearce, meaning that Under-21 fixtures next season will effectively be a warm-up programme for the Olympics.


"If we are going to prepare seriously, it is difficult for a manager in club employment to do that role," said the FA's general secretary, Alex Horne. "We will substitute England Under-21 fixtures for this hybrid team.

"Stuart is an employee of the FA. He's very heavily focused on the Under-21 tournament in Denmark (next summer) and we want him to focus on that."

But after that, Pearce can focus on steering the Under-21s towards the Olympics. "It would be very logical," added Horne.

"It is the FA's choice; we will make that decision in May/June time. It gives them a decent year to run the team into the tournament. It's primarily an Under-23 team with three over-age.

""The current arrangement is that it would be an English team representing the British Isles. The BOA have said it is not acceptable because it is prejudicial, so we are working through an alternative selection process with the other home nations."

Horne hopes to have identified "by the end of February" the younger coach to work with Pearce, Fabio Capello and the other England age-group teams.

Meanwhile, the Under-21s are to play Italy in Empoli on Feb 8.