The happiest surprise of the sporting week came from Fat Les. This is the pop group which comprises an actor, a bass guitarist and a chap called Damien who pickles sheep in formaldehyde for art's sake.

Anyway, Fat Les have recorded Jerusalem as the England team's official song at Euro 2000. And it's terrific.

In selecting this hymn to green mountains and pleasant pastures for a game which was itself builded among dark, Satanic mills, the FA deserves our warmest congratulations. And should you really want to know just how good it is, then consider some of its predecessors.

There was World Cup Willie from 1966: 'He's strong as a lion, and never will give up. That's why Willie, is favourite for the Cup.' There was Back Home from 1970; all bathos and blazers and 'We'll give all we've got to give'.

There was a long gap through the 1970s when England never managed to qualify for anything that mattered, and there was that popular piece of plainchant which still finds its voice on foreign excursions.

It goes: 'They started it. We was fitted up. The police was bang out of order. They only, like, done it 'cos we're English.'

There was Vindaloo, for which unspeakable ditty Fat Les are currently atoning, and there was the theme from The Great Escape, which was regularly murdered by that gratingly cheery band from Sheffield.

Worst of all, worst by far, there was the turgid theme of Euro 96. Three Lions, or Football's Comin' 'Ome, still conjures images of shaven-headed patriots, knuckles trailing in the dust, belching twee banalities to a background of shattering glass and droning sirens. Is 'Jools Ree-may' still gleaming? Perish the thought.

But now we have the genuine article, done with style and gusto and a 60-piece orchestra to complement the admirable Fat Les. Some have argued that Jerusalem ought to replace the vainglorious dirge which is the National Anthem.

I believe, with Mr Billy Connolly, that one day the nation will come to its senses and adopt the theme from The Archers; dum-di-dum-di-dum-di-dum, dum-di-dum-dedah-dah! But until that happy day, then Jerusalem would do nicely.

So Euro 2000 will offer an ideal testing ground. Naturally, the lads will not take its sentiments too literally; there will be no golden bows, no desirable arrows and anyone caught with a spear will be turned back at the Channel ports.

But cometh the hour in Charleroi and Eindhoven, and they will throw back their shoulders, stick out their chests and do their duty by the green and pleasant land.

And the gentlemen of the FA will congratulate themselves on a choice well made. For as another, and vastly inferior England football song once declared: 'This time, they've got it right.'