The World Cup has been going for a few weeks now and I have been thoroughly enjoying it. Almost every match has been hugely entertaining no matter which teams playing and that’s a good thing as my job entails that I see most of them.

Three Lions is a song that comes back into the public consciousness at every international football tournament that England play. Although it is a football song with a chantable chorus, like many of its ilk, the one thing that cements it’s success is the lyrics. Written by David Baddil and Frank Skinner, they tell the story of an England fan. Rather than an overly optimistic view of winning, it portrays the Hope that a supporter has for their team winning, even through all their failures.

This slight twist on what would normally be a regular football song elevates it above the others. It becomes a song just as much about fanaticism as it is about football. It’s a feeling most people can relate to. Sticking through the good and the bad of something because of raw passion, a belief that can’t be explained rationally because it exists emotionally.

Its a song that was written not for a football team but for the fans by fans. It is accompanied by the music of The Lighting Seeds’ Ian Broudie, whose pop sensibility is proven in his own work and the producer for several bands.

Although created for the 1996 European Championships, this song has stood the test of time, becoming England’s unofficial national anthem, to be sung for many years to come.

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