I don't know if this topic has been brought up before but i wonder why no footballers have ever taken part in SCD.

We've had so many sports personalities ie rugby players, cricketers but as far as im aware no footballers have ever taken part. I just find that suprising as football is probably the most well known sport in Britain i think someone like Ian Wright or Alan Shearer would be great on strictly although i could imagine there appearance fee being huge. Gary Linekar would be quite funny i think.

John Barnes took part last season .

oh my god i can't believe i totally forgot about John Barnes!!

How could you forget those snake hips .

And Peter Schmiechel.
Though he didn't have snake hips, of course!

Oh yes. The wooden plank, literally.

Ian Wright says he could never do SCD because of his dodgy knee. It's a shame, he'd have been a laugh, if nothing else!

There were rumours on Frank Lampard. A perfect partner for Erin?

A footballer who's currently playing couldn't do it as SCD is during the football season though Chelsea don't play many of their matches on Saturdays anymore so maybe he could fit it all in!

Sorry, I was supposed to say there were rumours about him starring after his retirement .

lol, sorry, i should have guessed that's what you meant! yeah, i think Erin would be well suited to him. He's quite tall so it'd have to be Erin, Camilla or Karen really. I'm not sure how tall Hayley and Kristina are.

Well Hayley is partnered with Mark, who is 6ft 4 IIRC? So Camilla, Erin, Karen or Hayley could be suited.

Oh yeah, good point about Mark!

Camilla is my favourite female pro so I'd like to see him with her-she always gets the ones who are arguably easy on the eye so it could happen!

Camilla's my favourite too . But after Gethin and Tom, I can't see her getting another young, handsome partner next year . Unfortunately she'll probably be partnered with an older celebrity.

(Just think less than 24 hours to go !)

yay! another Camilla fan! that's true, next year she might get a different type of celeb. As a Chelsea fan, I'm hoping Frank doesn't retire for a couple of years yet, so maybe by the time he goes on SCD, they'll be letting Camilla have the fitties again, lol!

(I know, I'm so excited! I'm thinking of going to bed, but I don't know if I'd be able to sleep because I'm so excited! )

Yes, I hope so. Camilla's fantastic and deserves nothing but fantastic partners .

(I know how you feel. I'm too excited to go to bed !)

Maybe footballers won't don't after seeing Barnesy and the Great Dane criticised for every little thing while cricketers and rugby players get praised for just taking part.

I'm sure footballers are asked to take part every year, but have said no for various reasons:

The fee for taking part is less than what many of them earn in a week so there's no financial gain there, compared to an out of work actor.

Unlike cricketers, footballers cannot commit to the show until they retire, so we're unlikely to get someone in their early 30s. A fortysomething year old sportsperson is yet to do well on the show.

The future for retired footballers is either TV/radio punditry or coaching/managing. Strictly isn't going to help them break into the latter, and it's debatable that it could help them with the former unless they have a really long run on the show. Even those who want to do entertainment work (like Ian Wright) start off as pundits.

Related to points 1 and 3, other sportsmen need the money and exposure more than footballers so their agents are more likely to approach the BBC.

Given the somewhat pathetic record of football in this country, isn't it time these overpaid egos were left out.

Let's see some representatives of more sports that we're actually good at.

Hey, there's a swimmer in this series!

(Wonders if Rebecca Adlington will be getting front row audience tickets to support Mark at some point).

Funnily enough a story has just been posted stating that Rebecca is going to tonight's show to cheer on Mark .

If another footballer was on SCD and was half as endearing and entertaining as Peter Schmichael I would be delighted! xx

Yay, she was there!

Obviously a current footballer can't take part because it's the football season and the games get in the way, as do the insurance policies. Also, the type of ex-footballer who is likely to have time to take part is generally working in the media or coaching so unlikely to be available either. Interestingly, the one player I could see in Strictly after retirement is one who is unlikely to go into either coaching or be a media analyst, and is marginally well-known to the general public. David Beckham.

Well, David has said he doesn't want to go into coaching. There was all that fuss about him saying he wanted to be Olympic 2012 coach but I saw that interview with Gary Richardson and Gary basically put words in his mouth. And even if he does want to be a media analyst, then it'd probably be with the BBC, who'd give him the time off anyway, as SCD is one of their flagship shows. Even Five gave John Barnes time off as a pundit last year.

He's already said that he doesn't want to go into the media either (and be honest: he hardly has the voice or vocabulary for it). I think he plans on doing charity work and running his football academies after he finishes playing.