Sir Alex Ferguson was blocked from managing Team GB football team despite saying “yes”

dailystar.co.uk:

Sir Alex Ferguson was blocked from managing the Team GB football team at London 2012 despite committing himself to the Olympics, it's been revealed.The legendary Manchester United manager was approached by the head of the organising committee, Seb Coe, about taking charge of the side which was made up of under-23 Premier League and Championship players and three established stars - Craig Bellamy, Ryan Giggs and Micah Richards.Recalling the events of 10 years ago, Coe said: “We got very close to him taking over.

I came up with the idea because we were having a bit of fragility around our Celtic cousins.READ MORE: Where the 2012 Great Britain football squad are now 10 years on from London Olympics“It suddenly occurred to me that the one unifying influence in all that would be having a not necessarily English coach.

It was ostensibly an English team, there were a smattering of Welsh players but effectively, it was an English side.“I thought I can’t imagine any club that’s going to release professional players to an Olympic team having a problem with their Under-23 players getting a six-week tutelage or masterclass from Alex Ferguson on the training ground.“I didn’t speak to a soul about it but I rang up Bob Charlton.

He said, ‘I’ll tell Alex to give you a call'. Weeks went by. I was in a Tesco in Cobham – a stone’s throw from the Chelsea training ground – on a Friday night filling baskets full of food for my kids and I got a call.Would Team GB have gone further with Sir Alex at the helm?