Pearce, the former Manchester City manager is currently in charge of the England under-21 side, was appointed as the Football Association's chief adviser on the 2012 Games and has been in China with chief executive Brian Barwick on a fact-finding mission about the Olympic tournament.

That and the success of Britain's team in Beijing has made Pearce even more enthusiastic about the prospect of a football team taking part in 2012 despite the opposition from the Scottish and Welsh FA's who fear that if they get involved it could lead to them losing their independence to take part in the World Cup and European Championships.

Colin Moynihan, the chairman of the British Olympic Association, and Sebastian Coe, the chairman of London 2012, have both insisted that Team GB will be represented in the football tournament in 2012 and both hope that they will be strong contenders for a gold medal.

Britain has won the tournament on three occasions but the last was at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912.

Pearce said: "We have seen a feel-good factor generated when England won the rugby.

"If we are successful at the Olympics and do well, I think it does have that kick-on effect.

"At the moment the rowing is big and I think right across the board we have done extremely well."

Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager who plans to retire in 2010, has been approached by Coe to manage the team but has recently tried to dampen down speculation that he will be involved.

If Sir Alex does turn down the opportunity then Pearce, who has an outstanding reputation for nurturing young football talent, would be favourite to manage a side that is mainly made up of under-23 players.

Pearce said: "In the Olympics we are looking to put a football team in in four years' time and someone has got to manage it.

"There has been some discussion and I have read people are pushing Alex to go in – he might have a bit of time on his hands in four years' time if he is doing a bit of gardening, so who knows"