10 of the best football songs

14 July 2024, 19:00

Football songs don't have to be awful. They can actually be uplifting, rousing... and occasionally help your team play better. Here are 10 of the best

By Radio X

@RadioX

1. New Order - World In Motion

   By EnglandNewOrder, if we’re being pedantic. But this classic track saw the legendary Manchester band get behind the England team’s 1990 World Cup effort and made the greatest football song ever in the process. England came fourth after being knocked out on penalties. New Order got to Number 1.

   

   New Order - World In Motion (Official Music Video)

2. Baddiel & Skinner & Lightning Seeds - Three Lions

   Can it really be over 25 years since the hosts of Fantasy Football League teamed up with Ian Broudie to rouse the nation into supporting England during Euro ’96? It got to Number One in the charts and it seemed like England could genuinely do it… and they eventually did in 2022, when the Lionesses triumphed.

   

   Three Lions (Football's Coming Home) (Official Video)

3. The Farm - Altogether Now

   Written by the Scouse lads about the genuine Christmas Day football match that took place on the battlefields of World War I between the English and the Germans in 1914. When Everton got to the FA Cup Final in 1995, a new version was recorded… and they won!

   

   The Farm - All Together Now - Official Video

4. Collapsed Lung - Eat My Goal

   Taking its title from a classic Alan Patridgism, this band were signed to the Deceptive label (home of Elastica and Idlewild). This hilarious track was released in the middle of Euro ’96 fever and found its way onto a Coca-Cola advert. LIQUID FOOTBALL.

   

   Collapsed Lung - Eat My Goal

5. Manic Street Preachers - Together Stronger (C’mon Wales)

   It took them a decade to write it, but the Manics saw their moment when their national team qualified for Euro 2016. Now, Wales are in the World Cup 2022. Will this song undergo a revival?

   

   Manic Street Preachers - Together Stronger (C'mon Wales) [Official Video]

6. Chumbawamba – Tubthumping

   “I get knocked down / But I get up again.” Once anarchic punks, Chumbawamba unexpectedly had a hit with this track in 1997 and went on to get a BRIT nomination. Sell outs, you say? They reportedly turned down a million-dollar offer from Nike to include it in a World Cup ad, but the track found its way onto the FIFA World Cup game.

   

   Chumbawamba - Tubthumping (Original Video)

7. Fat Les - Vindaloo

   Take comedian and actor Keith Allen, Blur bassist Alex James and add the 1998 World Cup. With a video featuring Paul “Dennis Pennis” Kaye parodying The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony video, many people preferred it to the reissue of Three Lions the same year.

   

   Fat Les - Vindaloo

8. Idlewild - You Held The World In Your Arms

   One for Scotland here, this track from the Edinburgh indie rockers’ third album, The Remote Part, was later used in the FIFA Football 2003 game.

   

   IDLEWILD - you held the world in your arms

9. The 5,6,7,8’s - Woo Hoo

   This Japanese band’s cover of a 1950s rockabilly song was tied to the beautiful game forever more, after being used in a 2004 ad for Carling lager.

   

   Carling advert

10. Embrace - World At Your Feet

    Another World Cup, another England tune. In 2006, however, they wanted to re-ignite the fire of World In Motion and employed Yorkshiremen Embrace to record World At Your Feet, a typically stirring ode from Danny McNamara. Chris Moyles was a big fan. The result? England were knocked out on penalties 3-1 in the Quarter Finals.

    

    Embrace - World At Your Feet (Music Video)