Race for the Championship

I know it's far too early to say, but Elland Road was visited by true Champions today. As a Yorkshireman I wasn't best pleased about the way boring boring Arsenal came up the M1 to make Terry Venables and his Leeds team look like one legged men at an arse kicking competition. Of course today it was the Arse that kicked back. 4-1, if you've just landed from Mars.

During the World Cup I hardly missed a kick. I was constantly having to justify why I was wasting the best part of every morning watching a tournament at the other side of the world. "Who's that then." "Senegal." "And who's that?" "Korea." " You're nuts..."

It was great fun watching the mighty France, World and European Champs being made to look like chumps, Nil Point. No goals. Merde most foul.

But I remember it was also great to see then win the tournament four years earlier in true Alexander Dumas Cavalier style. "All For One and One For All, D'Artagnian!". What a way to win. And what a team! A genuine modern French mix of folks from every racial background. Le black, le blanc, et le beur ceased to endure the scape of old goats like Jean Marie Le Pen and became Frencher than De Gaulle. Zidane, Thuram, Desailly, Henry, Karembeu were heroes, and a new sense of "métissage" swept the country. France grew up big time that week. To get the Brits to like them too, that's achievement alright.

Our own country has, like France, a growing maturity when it comes to race and racial issues. There are pockets of hate still festering (Kurds being attacked in Sunderland, NF nutters elected in Burnley) and it still takes serious cojones to walk some streets with a turban or a kufi. Like France - one black member representing mainland France, and no Arab any where in the 577-seats - the big-talking politicians are drowning in a sea of old white boys (so we can't rely on them), but there's a least a good multicultural vibe going on here these days.

The new head of the British CRE, Beverley Bernard, is already getting stick for saying the same thing. She sounds a good lass to me - she told the papers "the UK is way ahead of any society I know ... it is not just multicultural, it is multifaith, multirace and multicoloured and there is a lovely synthesis. I have a sense of belonging to this society, that I'm British. " That's a pretty cool thing to say, and I'm sure that it rang true with a lot of people.

She's been involved with a load of hot potatoes - like the Steven Lawrence case in London, and yet she had the good grace to take a positive message to an organisation that is always in the front-line of UK race relations.

Good for her. You don't hear the great British melting pot being celebrated too often. Everyone hails the great British curry and lets their hair down at the Notting hill Carnival, but it really is about time people shouted from the rooftops about how far Britain's come, and how rich our culture is becoming, and who has been the catalyst for change. Respect is well overdue.

I really don't want any of the homogenised, shops-closed-at-5pm curtain-twitching Land Of Hope and Boring white-bread old school bollocks anymore. I'm tired of it.Who needs black and white when we've grown up with colour. Our country is a far better place for being an open, pan-cultural place to live. A central theme of British history has always been our natural interest and involvement with global affairs. It built the empire and it keeps the commonwealth alive and kicking. Unlike the United States our interest has been as much about world culture as it has about world commerce, and it's where we can really lead the way as a 21st century nation. Nothing is more exciting that celebrating and participating in that culture right here at home.

At Elland Road today we got first hand experience of this extraordinary United Nations sporting taskforce. World class players. The cream of the planet's ballers. It sure as hell beats a cup game against Exeter or Swansea. The backbone of this Arsenal team is rooted in the French side that were World Champions not so long ago. Thoughts of them returning from Korea/Japan with their tail between their legs were brushed aside long before they emerged from the West Stand tunnel.

They broke two records today. 47 consecutive scoring matches - a record that's stood since before the war. They also set a new standard for to pflight away matches without defeat. They meet Sunderland at Highbury and, if they avoid a loss, Man Utd's record of unbeaten Premiership matches goes too. Anything that diminishes a fading Man U is worth applause in my book.

Theirry Henry, undisputedly the most lethal striker in Europe right now, took a severe amount of racist shite from Dutch fans in the week. They say the boys from Fulham and Liverpool also took some crap, which shows that in some parts of Europe skin pigment is still an issue. Henry dealt with it by turning up his game and racking up the goals.

But he's ended the week with a bit of an attitude in an effort to turn up the heat on the authorities who'd prefer to cop a deaf 'un. He says he'll leave the pitch if things get that bad again. Now he may have set himself up for a roasting across half of the grounds he'll play at - there's bound to be a few lads who will try to call his bluff - but if he DOES do this, it will focus the issue like nothing else.

He'll not find the opportunity to test his promise at his next Euro jaunt. Auxerre in France are probably the toughest opponents they will face. They are cleaning up in France in precisely the same way that Arsenal are in England and have the same pan-cultural kind of team. Indeed they too are celebrating a four-one away win this weekend, and are bossing the French league. They also have a hotshot striker - Djibril Cisse, who has been linked with just about every big club all summer. Perhaps the heat of Heny's experience with the PSV crowd will cool down as the year progresses.

This Arsenal team are far more worthy of our indulgence than the spoilt brat bad losers of just east of the Pennines. If Leeds are going to take a beating I'd rather it be done by a team that can play that well - it's not like Leeds were'nt playing a bit themselves today. Nothing would give me greater pleasure to see Roy Keane and co made to idiots, and if it takes a team that played as well as the Arse did well fair play to 'em. At least the buggers keep their big gobs shut and let their game do the talking. Blogga.