Woodward, who coached England's team to victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup, will participate in a provocative session entitled Are Sporting Heroes Dead?

Brady, the first woman to run a major English football club, will bring the executive acumen she displays in BBC's hit series The Apprentice to From the Boardroom to the Playing Field: CEOs of Sport.

She will be joined on that panel by Greg Clarke, executive chairman of the Football League.

Another panel, Why Sport Matters to the Entertainment Industry, will include NFL senior vice-president events Frank Supovitz, who directs the Super Bowl operation.

And Armann Thorvaldsson, former chief executive officer of Kaupthing Singer Friedlander Bank in Iceland, whose book Frozen Assets provides the definitive insider account of that country's banking crunch, is ideally placed to contribute to the session on What Can Sport Learn from the Banking Crisis?

Also newly confirmed as speakers are Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, secretary general of the Qatar National Olympic Committee, and Spyros Capralos, chairman of the Athens Stock Exchange, who was executive director of the Athens 2004 organisation.

The ninth edition of SportAccord will be held from April 3-8 at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel.

Held in a different city every year, the convention features top level conference sessions and a dynamic exhibition as well as the annual general meetings of governing bodies of world sport.

It attracts more than 1,500 leading representatives of international sport.

This year marks the first time the UK has ever hosted SportAccord and is a key milestone in delivering the UK capital's long term aim to position London as the world's leading city in the business of sport.

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