England followers will get a first sight of Andy Carroll leading the line when the team take on Norway in Oslo. In Norway they tradiotionally play the game with a robust directness and enjoy victories over England with relish. It should be a good game and already England fans will be gathering in the streets of Oslo. There will be drinking and merriment.

Every year the people of Norway send a Christmas tree to England, for Trafalgar Square, as token of the comradeship between two peoples who fought fascism in Europe, As footballers from England plan for the Euros 2012 the Foreign Office suggest black and asian people from this country should act with caution when visiting the Ukraine. As Hodgson said – it is very “sad”.

In England football has educated society about racism and progressed. Nothing is perfect but the FA and footballing bodies have tried to meet the challenge. The primitive scenes of racist baiting in the Bernebau and other national stadiums has seen Blatter and the pathetic mob at UEFA do nothing.

England are playing their group games at the furthest point east in the Ukraine, the greatest distance possible to travel for any fans. Rooney is banned and now the appalling Blatter has opened his gob again to call Chelsea’s victory over Bayern a “tragedy” – because they won – on penalties. The bias is clear.

So what ? It is a long hard road but it is only football and not the battles that spilled the acres of blood in a war against the creed that one nation, one man, is any better than another. But in another way it is the same.

When England play football all the young men out there are all ours. It is all one nation under the sun and something that we have fought for, something more precious than any trophy, the thing that won us the war against fascism and keeps us defeating racism. It is our total victory. It is what we are, and what we call our football clubs. United.

Come On, England – winning the Euros in 2012 .