The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) confirmed on Wednesday that David Beckham will attend the Olympic Flame Handover Ceremony in Athens and bring the Flame back to the UK ahead of its 70-day journey.

David, who was part of the successful London 2012 bid team in 2005, will be joined by five young people invited to take part by LOCOG and the British Council.

The official delegation will be led by chair of LOCOG Sebastian Coe and Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

The young people have been selected from schools and colleges involved in the London 2012 Get Set Education programme and school linking programmes run by the British Council.

As well as visiting some of the schools in Athens they are linked with, the young people are set to have a starring role in the Handover Ceremony expected to start at 19:00pm local Greek time (17:00pm BST) on the evening of 17 May at the Panathenaic Stadium.

Coe said: "We wanted to involve young people from across the UK in bringing home the Olympic Flame. Their stories of personal achievement and contribution to sport echo the 8,000 inspiring Torchbearer stories that will be shared from this weekend and over the next ten weeks in the build up to the start of the Games. Working with one of our most inspiring sportspeople is also fitting for this hugely exciting time for the London 2012 Games."