Stars warm up for Soccer Aid - with first female players joining England team

It's that time of the year when showbiz and football stars take to the pitch to raise cash for the children's charity UNICEF.

Soccer Aid combines celebrities running round the field side-by-side with well known faces from the sport raising money for great causes. For the first time female footballers will play for England in the match.

Piers Morgan has said he is "irrationally confident" that he will defeat his "snowflake" co-star Susanna Reid when the pair go head to head as rival captains in the match.

The first female footballers to play for England at Soccer Aid have said it will be "a big moment for women's football".

Rachel Yankey and Katie Chapman will join John Terry, David Seaman, Sir Mo Farah and Jamie Redknapp in the charity match for Unicef.

Asked why it has taken so long, Yankey replied: "That's a good question, I don't know the answer to it, to be honest, but it's happened now and now's a good time.

"And even bigger than the game is what it's trying to represent and what it's supporting - raising money for kids to be able to pay around the world.

"Both of us have children and are massive supporters of what youngsters can do.

"Anything that the boys can do in the playgrounds around the world, we want to be able to say girls can do that too, girls can be professional footballers, the WSL is professional, they can go to a World Cup.

Chapman, who made 94 appearance for England before retiring last year, said she thought the women's team had a good chance in the World Cup, which is going on now.

Sam Allardyce, who is managing the England team for Soccer Aid alongside TV presenter Susanna Reid, said women will continue to join the teams for the charity match from now on.

He said: "Women's football in general across the board in England is growing stronger and stronger and I think more and more youngsters are going to take the game up on a more serious basis and you can have a really good career now in the women's game."

Soccer Aid for Unicef will be broadcast live on ITV on June 16, starting at 6.30pm. To donate visit socceraid.org.uk