FIGURES can be twisted into anything you desire. So the argument has run ever since the two-by-two Ark plight of a rookie boatman named Noah.

Nowadays the numbers game can even spell out a new language. It can be pretentiously catchy such as twentyfourseven, or ominously portentous such as 9-11, or now potentially momentous such as twentytwelve.

Yesterday indeed was twentytwelve - that is, the 20th of December to be precise and a day on which a new initiative was paraded as part of London's campaign to host the Olympic Games in the year 2012.

All children who were born yesterday are to be invited to take part in the opening ceremony of the Games. Unfortunately, it's a venture not confined to London's bid. Rival cities - Paris, Madrid, New York and Moscow - simultaneously launched similar schemes.

So for any of those children born yesterday in Britain - the anticipated number is 1,800 - can expect a track and field day out of Olympian magic. That's all dependent, of course, on London winning the nod from the International Olympic Committee next summer.

And the chances of that will hinge significantly on how the British public responds to the London bid between now and the IOC's D-day.

Now this column is not known for its support of all things London. The capital all too often gets the bulk of the nation's attractions and investment. It will return to a position of elevated prestige once the new Wembley is built and 'exiled' jewels like the FA Cup final, England football internationals and the Rugby League final all bounce back to its North London portals.

But to host the Olympic Games is an opportunity neither London, nor the nation can afford to miss.

By the time 2012 comes around the world's greatest global sports event will have not touched these shores for more than 60 years. Now that is a sporting wilderness.

For all the cost, and it will be Centre-point high; for all the security concerns; for all the massive re-building required, it remains imperative that the London bid is successful.

To stage the Games is an honour, a privilege. A successful Games will live long in the memory and will prove an uplifting, enriching experience - the most rewarding benefits that sport can provide.

And if we are to be taken seriously as a sporting power we need to back the 2012 London bid to the nth degree.

That means signing all the massive shirts you can put pen to. It means championing the cause of London as one of the western world's most impressive capital cities. It means giving a chance to those new citizens born yesterday to play a part in a future 2012 to remember.

Eric the dreadful bore

IF the Olympic Games' five gold rings are topically festive then so is a pantomime villain. So take an exaggerated bow, monsieur Eric Cantona.

The one-time Manchester United star - some who cannot remember beyond the glitz of the Premiership believe he is the main Man U supernova - shocked viewers to the club's own MUTV station with a four-letter outburst during a prime-time interview.

Oh how eccentric. Oh how Gallic. Oh how Eric. Oh what a load of sardines-wallop.

As a footballer Cantona (pictured in his Red Devils' pomp) was highly gifted and the catalyst for the revival of the modern Manchester United, who snapped him up from of all clubs, Leeds United.

But he rarely reigned in Europe and for all the recent polls that have put him at the Old Trafford pinnacle, he could never lace the boots of Duncan Edwards, George Best, Bobby Charlton, Denis Law or Bryan Robson.

Now as a former footballer he is nothing short of the shoddy embodiment of the personality of the cult.

Why don't you exit stage left Eric to boos and hisses? Merry Christmas tout le monde.

Updated: 10:22 Tuesday, December 21, 2004