Philosophy and football aren’t usually thought of as the most natural partners. But to celebrate last week’s World Philosophy Day, The Philosophy Shop, an educational service provider, announced its plans for a philosophical football match between philosophers, comedians and educationists.

Based on the famous 1972 Monty Python sketch of a match between the Greeks and the Germans, this tongue-in-cheek restaging on a London football pitch next spring will be between the Socrates Wanderers and Nietzsche Albion.

The Philosophy Shop will be using The Philosophers’ Football Match 2010 as a springboard for increasing awareness of the importance of reasoning in the curriculum.

The comedian Arthur “Schopenhauer” Smith said: “Everything I know about football I learnt from the great philosophers,” while former Monty Python star Terry Jones adds: “It seems reasonable to teach children to reason, and unreasonable not to.”