NEWS that Yorkshire have formed an international team took Bradford Park Avenue manager Mark Bower back to his playing days.

The centre half, who has just celebrated his 38th birthday, featured for four clubs in the white-rose county (Bradford City, York City, Halifax Town and Guiseley) over his career.

Bower recalled: "We had some players over from Lancashire and used to have five-a-side matches in training at virtually every club that I played for between Yorkshire and the Rest of the World. We also had old versus young."

When asked which of the two sides (old or young) Bower played for – bearing in mind he made his professional debut as a 17-year-old for the Bantams and finished up as a 33-year-old at Guiseley – quick as a flash Bradford-born Bower said: "The winning one!"

The Yorkshire International Football Association (YIFA) was founded last July and the team was selected after a trial day at Hemsworth Miners' Welfare last month.

The eventual idea for 'God's Own County' is that they will compete globally against teams that FIFA do not recognise such as Tibet, Darfur, Greenland, Kiribati, Zanzibar, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

But for starters, Yorkshire will face Ellan Vannin – from the Isle of Man – at Hemsworth tomorrow (1.00), with only players who are born in Yorkshire being eligible.

The goalkeepers for Yorkshire are Avenue's Ed Hall and George Clarke (Brighouse Town), while the team will be skippered by Paddy McGuire of Thackley and managed by Bradford City Academy coach Ryan Farrell.

"It will be interesting," confessed Bower, who hopes to be at tomorrow's match. "But I don't know whether clubs will make players available if they have, for example, a key league match a couple of days later."

YIFA chairman Philip Hegarty, who admits that some quality players have applied to take part, has also stressed that anyone representing Yorkshire should not dive or shout at the referee.

Bower said: "I would like to see that brought in at a higher level, because it is so difficult for a referee to tell whether a player has dived."

Hegarty is also keen – something that Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Sir Gary Verity would back – on his players spreading the gospel about not only what it is to be from the county, but also talking about the heritage and history of the region as ambassadors.

The ultimate prize for Yorkshire is to win the World Football Cup, which is the global tournament for international teams outside FIFA.

Yorkshire are too late to qualify for this year's tournament, to be held in London and featuring 16 teams from five continents.