Students at Little Ilford School learnt first-hand what it was like to be a city executive when they were thrown into a mock-up football club deal.

The challenge, as set by East London Business Alliance (ELBA), was to give advice to two potential buyers for a fictional football club, London FC.

On Friday, fourteen students, aged 15 and 16, were split into two advisory bodies, one for each buyer, to consider whether bidding on the club would be a good idea.

And at the end of the day they presented their offer for the football club to a board of HSBC executives and to the fictional football club manager Mr Boot - a role taken on by MP Stephen Hammond.

The programme was run through ELBA’s education programme Business Action Groups for Schools, which aims to build links between businesses and young people.