Former England boss Sir Bobby Robson is to reunite his 1990 World Cup squad with its German counterparts to raise money for his cancer charity.

Robson, 75, is hoping for a sell-out crowd for the match that will take place at St James' Park on July 26.

England reached the semi-finals in Turin in 1990 before losing to West Germany on penalties.

This game, competing for The Sir Bobby Robson Trophy, will give Robson and his team the chance to redress the balance.

In addition to reuniting the 1990 England and Germany players, Robson also plans to call on some other special guests to add to his team.

Robson, who also managed Ipswich, PSV Eindhoven, Porto, Sporting Lisbon, Barcelona and Newcastle, said: "I'm thrilled at the prospect of reuniting my 1990 England squad in support of my charity.

"It will be a pleasure to see them together again, hopefully this time we'll get the result we want against Germany.

"We had a good group of players that year, very talented, very tough and ambitious. We got better as the tournament progressed, more accomplished, and the fact we lost on penalties and not in open play tells its story.

"I found out in World Cup football that some teams, over a long spell, are happy to get knocked out and go home but we weren't like that.

"We were determined to stay in the competition as long as possible and had great will to win.

"Some players get homesick but we had great staying power in the team and our ambition was to stay to the bitter end. We were so near but so far."

All the money raised will go to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, which has already raised over £1.2 million towards the early detection and treatment of cancer.

Robson, who is fighting cancer for the fifth time, said: "I am very grateful to my former players who are coming up to Newcastle to help us raise money for my charity.

"I'm also very appreciative of the efforts of the German players who have so much further to travel.

"The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation is extremely important to me and I'll keep going just as long as I can to help raise the money for the experts trying to find a cure for this terrible disease.

"I understand one in three of us will be diagnosed with cancer and the effects can be devastating.

"It happened to me in an instant. One minute I was sitting watching the football at Ipswich and the next minute I was being told I had a cancerous tumour on my brain.

"It happened to me like that, in an instant, and it can happen to anyone."