Football will kick off the London 2012 Olympics when the women's competition starts at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on 25 July, two days before the official opening ceremony.
The men's and women's competitions will each involve 28 nations from six confederations playing at six venues across England, Scotland and Wales.
Granted a place as the host nation, it will be the first time that Great Britain & Northern Ireland has entered a football team in the men's competition since 1960, and the debut appearance for the women since its introduction in 1996.
But as a BBC Radio 5 Live special Team GB United will discuss at 2000 GMT on Thursday, there are more questions than answers about the two teams that will represent the home nations next year.
Top of the list is the thorny and, so far, divisive issue of whether all of the home nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will come together.
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Ever since the Carlos Tevez affair exposed the controversial practice of third party ownership, English football has taken a zero tolerance approach to ensure no player in this country can be owned by anyone other than their club.
Although still prevalent on the continent, the Premier League and Football League require clubs to buy out any third parties which claim to own the economic rights in a player before their transfers are permitted here.
To prove the point the Football League has just charged Championship leaders Queens Park Rangers with seven breaches of FA rules for failing to notify the authorities of third party agreements involving midfielder Alejandro Faurlin.
The charges relate to the "alleged existence of an agreement between the club and a third party in respect of Faurlin's economic rights, and the alleged failure to notify the FA of that agreement before the player was transferred to play in England in 2009". If found guilty, QPR could be deducted points.
So it is a surprise, perhaps, to discover that a new investment fund has just been set up by the former Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon and Ronaldo's and Jose Mourinho's agent Jorge Mendes to invest in the economic rights of players.
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I'm hoping not to put a jinx on things but the boys down at Annan Athletic appear to be hitting form at just the right time.
Our 2-1 home victory over Montrose at the weekend meant that for the first time since joining the Scottish Football League in 2008 we have won four league games on the bounce.
More importantly, it saw us close the gap on second placed Albion Rovers - who we can now leapfrog should we win our game in hand.
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