Former Blue Fabian Wilnis will be back in action in town on Saturday morning when the UK 3 Lions take on a team of Dutch non-league players at Ipswich Wanderers’ SEH Sports Ground in Humber Doucy Lane (KO 11am, entry free).
The UK 3 Lions are a team of celebrities and ex-footballers who play games all over the world to raise money for charity. In the summer of 2012 they played a game at Wanderers to raise funds for Mason's Magic.
Saturday’s match is part of their preparations for an international tournament in Moscow in late May and early June when they will take on similar teams from other nations.
Wilnis took part in the competition last summer: "There were 16 countries and now they’re looking to raise that to 24. The organisation behind it is called Art Football.
"Every day of the tournament, as well as the football, in the evening there will be a concert for an hour and a half with every country participating.”
Amongst the other members of the UK 3 Lions squad are former Wolves man Simon Osborn, upcoming singers Lee Rootsy and Lewis Clay, and Rob Lamarr, from Channel 5’s Supercasino. One regular who will be missing is former The Streets man Leo the Lion, who is taking part in the new series of The Voice.
Wilnis, 43, who is now an academy coach at Colchester United, arranged for Saturday’s opposition to come over from Holland and will be showing them around while they are here: "We’ll be playing against a team of Dutch non-league footballers. They are over here for the weekend.
"I’m going to give them a little tour of the stadium on Friday, then on Saturday they play the match, then they are going to watch Ipswich Town against QPR.”
Before making his way to Portman Road, Fab will be appearing on Life’s a Pitch on Radio Suffolk and afterwards he will join Bryan Hamilton, John Wark and Fortuna Dusseldorf star Egon Köhnen for a Legends in Legends Special.