Wenger Pitches in for Brown and Sarkozy

Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy are in danger of being overshadowed at tomorrow's Anglo-French summit by a global leader who oversees a transnational empire built on British money and French talent: Arsène Wenger.

The Arsenal manager's symbolic role as the living embodiment of the entente cordiale will be cemented when he formally welcomes the two leaders at the gates of the Emirates stadium to mark the start of the summit. Such is football's cultural dominance at this summit that Arsenal is not just being held up as a glowing example of cross-Channel cooperation; it will also emerge from the event as a model for global development.

After Wenger bestows his blessing on the Brown-Sarkozy union with a 10-minute pre-summit chat, the three men will walk down on to the Emirates pitch, where children from Arsenal's Double Club will demonstrate how they learn French and football together.

Arsenal set up the club in 1998, when it won the double, to encourage local pupils to get involved in after-school studies by combining them with football training. Brown and Sarkozy will be watching boys and girls from the French Double program going through their paces combining dribbling skills with French verbs.

Both British and French governments believe the use of football in promoting learning and literacy can be spread further and used in development work, particularly in Africa. Sarkozy is said to have expressed particular interest in the Arsenal scheme as a means of boosting the popularity of the French language in Britain. But Downing Street said firmly that, unlike his predecessor, "the prime minister will not be kicking a football".