FOR nearly half a century, we’ve hailed 1966 - the year of England’s football World Cup win - as the most glorious in the history of British sport.

The victory against West Germany was so momentous, it has overshadowed all subsequent sporting successes, including notable Ashes victories and our 2003 Rugby Union World Cup win.

Indeed, few could probably have imagined our greatest international sports achievement being topped by anything other than a second football World Cup victory.

But not any more.

The year 2012 is the new 1966 and as such will forever be woven into our national psyche as a pinnacle in British sporting excellence.

Our supreme multi-sport successes this year are so significant, I can well imagine - indeed hope - they will knock football off its pedestal as a national sporting obsession.

From Bradley Wiggins’s Tour de France triumph through to the amazing Team GB and Paralympic GB record medal successes and Andy Murray’s US Open Grand Slam tennis win on Tuesday - Britain’s first since 1936 - we have shown how multifarious our sporting talents really are.

We’ve shone in an inspirational array of events - on road and track, in the ring and both in and on water.

In contrast, professional soccer in England is a game in danger of moral decline. Our often overrated, overpaid Premier League stars who can become so easily beguiled and distracted by their celebrity lifestyles should take note from our Olympians and Paralympians how hard work, dedication and a determination to overcome physical disabilities and obstacles can lead to the finest sporting success.

Without question, 2012 has spawned a fresh generation of celebrities - a host of new sporting stars flung into the firmament.

It will change them all, and maybe some not for the better, but I suspect the vast majority will remain firmly grounded in reality - unlike the Premier League prima donnas.