Sport can help us overcome shock of Brexit vote and show Britain will always be part of Europe

Britain hasn't lost its sense of comic timing.

As it took the shocking decision to exit the European arena, tens of thousands of its citizens were in France hoping England, Wales and Northern Ireland avoid such a fate over the next four days.

With three teams in the last 16 of Euro 2016, British football has rarely been bigger on the European stage.

Some of us hoped the tournament would emphasise the continent's positive side - thrilling in its diversity, yet simultaneously bound by an identity forged over centuries.

You don't have to be in the EU to be at Euro 2016 - Iceland and Switzerland aren't; neither are Russia, Ukraine or Turkey. But the boisterous hordes filling the streets from Lille to Lyon benefit from a closeness behind which the European project has been a driving force.

Freedom of movement; freedom of expression; freedom to go to any town square on the continent, buy a beer and English newspaper and have a jolly fine time without speaking a word of the local lingo.

The modern Briton enjoys a startlingly privileged position when abroad. The USA might have helped English become the global language, but the European receptiveness to the British is also borne out of our desire to explore, to travel, to experience new things (and spend money while we're there).

Britannia may no longer rule the waves, but it still matters, it is still a player, it still has influence. Or it did. Let's see how tolerant the rest of Europe becomes of our quirks and flaws when we pull up the drawbridge, retreat into our castle and tell everyone else to bugger off.

I voted Remain, as did nearly everyone I know. As you might expect of someone at Eurosport, I work with Europeans every day. They are colleagues and friends, and cooperation is essential to our work. Wondering how I’m going to look these people in the eye next time we meet isn’t reason enough to stay in the EU, but it certainly adds a personal dimension to my despair today.

But then I clearly represent the complacent 'elite' - unlikely knowingly to speak to a Brexit voter, much less share their views or motives.

I'm in no position to accuse 52% of the population of voting out of xenophobia and malice – too few positive arguments were made in favour of EU membership, and a calamitously muddled performance from the major party leaders allowed the Leave campaign to hammer home a poisonous yet powerful argument about immigration that Remain never managed to combat effectively.

The voters weren't stupid, and they weren't misled by one camp more than the other in a shambolic campaign - but only one side made an argument that resonated.

The fact this comes as such a shock speaks to Britain's deep social divisions.

This verdict didn't just blindside me and my chattering class pals. It rocked the establishment and the markets – oods on Brexit were as long as 14/1, not quite Leicester City but a foregone conclusion as far as the bookies were concerned.

They were wrong, and the currency traders were wrong, with the pound collapsing dramatically.

This morning, the travelling football fan's bière pression is about 50p more expensive. All in all, it hasn't been a good Euros for Sterling.

Football might just help get over the shock of Brexit. The English, Welsh and Northern Irish will still be out tonight; drinking, singing and enjoying the great festival of nations that is Euro 2016.

Our teams remain in the Champions League and Europa League, and their millionaire stars aren’t going anywhere just yet.

Sport fuelled my love of Europe. I remember learning the names of the great Dutch and German sides; I used my atlas during Italia ’90 to locate Cagliari, Naples and Turin; English clubs’ post-Heysel return to European competition opened a wonderfully exotic world of Atleticos, Partizans and Lokomotivs.

As long as our island sits a few miles north-west of the continental mainland, this will be our world.

Brexit might sever our economic and political ties with the EU, but it cannot change our geography or a history far more intertwined Europe than any Churchill-misquoting Ukipper would wish to acknowledge.

As England, Wales and Northern Ireland prepare for their Euro 2016 last-16 matches, we should remember that Britain might leave the EU, but it will always be in Europe.