CONFERENCE EXPLORES 40 YEARS OF ENGLAND V. GERMANY FOOTBALL.

(Full text of a statement. Contact details follow below.)

LEICESTER, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2006--Ahead of the football world cup, eminent sports historians will be taking a look at rivalries between England and Germany in the 40 years since the 1966 English victory.

The day-long conference on Saturday 20 May will feature talks by international experts on various aspects of rivalry, and has already attracted key European journalists.

The International Centre for Sport History and Culture (ICSHC) at De Montfort University Leicester, which brings together eminent historians of British and European sport, is organising the event entitled 'England v. Germany 1966-2006 Football, History and National Rivalry'.

Five leading historians of sport will look at English and German football from both sides, and a panel discussion will look at the changing sporting relationship between England and Germany.

Prof Christiane Eisenberg from the Humboldt University, Berlin, will examine the wider sporting relations between Britain and Germany over the whole of the twentieth century.

Prof Tony Mason from the ICSHC at De Montfort University will set the 1966 final in the context of previous and subsequent encounters.