David Beckham says he would love to play in 2012 Olympic soccer tournament

Beckham has been signed as an ambassador by electronics firm Samsung, a partner with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) until the end of the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.Beckham, no longer playing in England national matches, has now returned to the United States to play for L.A. Galaxy but he would like to take part in some form of national team at the Olympics.

"So far I've heard I'm going to be managing, coaching, playing, so we'll see. But I would like to be part of it in some way, I'd love to be a player in it of course, but to be just part of that team would be pretty incredible. You know for a football team to go into the Olympics in England, you know it's a huge thing, so yeah I would love to be part of it in some way and playing would be a bonus."

For most countries the football tournament will be simple with one team entered. But the United Kingdom enters separate teams for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in FIFA competitions such as the World Cup, while it historically enters a Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for competitions such as the Olympic Games.

However that team last qualified for the Olympic Games in 1960 and has not even entered the competition since 1972.

There is now the opportunity for such a team to be formed as it would automatically qualify as host, but suggestions of a united team, drawn from all countries in the Union, have foundered as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not wish to compromise their right to field their own teams in competitions such as the World Cup.

What seems likely, as happened in 1960, is for a team to be formed using almost exclusively England players but named Great Britain.