We can be proud for once.

For all it's potential for dignity and ennoblement, sport very rarely lives up to that potential and nowhere is this more apparent than in the sometimes tacky world of professional football. When the sporting ideal is made real we just bask in it's warm glow and wonder why it can't always be like this. The anti-semitic and racist nationalism that is an ever present current in East European cultures was bound to surface during Euro 2012 and the reception given to black Dutch players at a training session in Krakow is probably a grim taste of what's in store. Against this background the decision of some members of the English team to visit Auschwitz stands out as an example of the kind of thoughtful, dignified players that are a credit to their game.