After England’snail-biting penalty shoot-out win against Colombia, it does appear that football is indeed finally coming home. Maybe.
Following a relatively smooth progression through the group stage at the World Cup in Russia, Gareth Southgate’s men are bracing themselves for a potentially tough quarter-final tie against Sweden on Saturday.
Optimism among the fans has rarely been higher, the chorus of “Three Lions” echoing from the throats of well-refreshed revellers in the pubs of this green and pleasant land once more. It’s like Euro 96 all over again.
The song was written for that tournament by comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel - hosts of the BBC’s lads’ mag comedy show Fantasy Football (1994-96) – with Ian Broudie of Scouse Britpop outfit The Lightning Seeds, whipping up excitement by conjuring the spirit of 1966 and recent memories of heartbreak at Italia 90.
It really caught on and became a national phenomenon when England beat Scotland 2-0 at Wembley on 15 June 1996, a game in which Israeli psychic Uri Geller claimed to have moved the ball with his mind to ensure Gary McAllister’s spot kick was saved by David Seaman and in which Paul Gascoigne secured his immortality by flicking the ball over Colin Hendry’s head to thrash home past Andy Goram. When the final whistle blew, “Three Lions” erupted around the stadium.
Baddiel described the occasion in conversation with Kirsty Young on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs as ”one of the most extraordinary moments of my life” and admitting to still feeling goosebumps whenever he thinks of it.
Recalling that heady summer on Josh Widdicombe and Chris Scull’s Quickly Kevin podcast recently, Skinner remembered joking before the match that he and Baddiel had offered to write an anthem for the Scots called “Three Games” and revealed Gazza’s superstitious attachment to the song, the playmaker refusing to get off the team bus at one point until “Three Lions” had been blasted out on the stereo.
When Gazza’s goal hit the back of the net, Skinner’s girlfriend at the time was so excited she belted the man sat in front of her in the celebrity box in the back of the head, the victim turning around in annoyance and revealing himself to be heavyweight boxer Frank Bruno.
The song was number one in the charts – dethroning The Fugees - and became the anthem of that uncharacteristically balmy summer, the legacy of disappointment and hope for the future it evoked capturing England’s latest thwarted dream as the team went out on penalties to Germany.
Striker Jurgen Klinsmann later admitted “Three Lions” was so catchy that even the Germans themselves were singing it en route to the Wembley semi-final.
It was of course Southgate himself who missed the crucial penalty and was condemned to sending himself up with a brown paper bag over his head in a Pizza Hut commercial.
Skinner said in his Quickly Kevin interview last September that he believed Southgate should not be allowed to manage England because of the pain his miss had caused the nation, an opinion he is now no doubt reconsidering.
He and David Baddiel subsequently revived and re-recorded “Three Lions” with updated lyrics for both France 98 and the South Africa World Cup in 2010 but recent disappointments against Uruguay and Iceland had seen it fall out of favour.
Until now.
The duo were in jubilant form last night, with Baddiel tweeting a picture of them watching the Colombia game together and celebrating as Eric Dier converted the winning spot kick.
If you only know the chorus to “Three Lions”, here are the lyrics in full (vintage commentary in italics).
You’ve got three days.
(I think it’s bad news for the English game)
(We’re not creative enough)
(We’re not positive enough)
It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming
Football’s coming home (We’ll go on getting bad results)
It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming
Football’s coming home
It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming
Football’s coming home
It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming
Football’s coming home
Everyone seems to know the score, they’ve seen it all before
They just know, they’re so sure
That England’s gonna, throw it away, gonna blow it away
But i know they can play
‘Cause I remember
Three lions on a shirt
Jules Remet still gleaming
Thirty years of hurt
Never stopped me dreaming
So many jokes, so many sneers
But all those “oh so near’s”
When your down, through the years
But I still see that tackle by Moore
And when Lineker scored, Bobby belting the ball
And Nobby dancing
Three lions on a shirt
Jules Remet still gleaming
Thirty years of hurt
Never stopped me dreaming
(England have done it, in the last minute of extra time)
(What a save, what now!)
(Good old England, England that couldn’t play football...)
(England have got it in the bag)
I know that was then, but it could be again
It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming
Football’s coming home
It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming
Football’s coming home
(England have done it)
It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming
Football’s coming home
It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming
Football’s coming home
Three lions on a shirt
Jules Remet still gleaming
Thirty years of hurt
Never stopped me dreaming
Three lions on a shirt
Jules Remet still gleaming
Thirty years of hurt
Never stopped me dreaming
Three lions on a shirt
Jules Remet still gleaming
Thirty years of hurt
Never stopped me dreaming
