worldcup

Playlist of the month: football songs

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A screenshot of the football songs playlist on Spotify.

In honour of the England Men’s team making the Football World Cup Semi-Finals for only the fourth time ever, this month’s playlist is all about football songs.

I haven’t been watching the games – mainly because they’re mostly on late at night or early in the morning UK time, but also because England tend to play better when I don’t watch. So hopefully the fact that I won’t be watching tonight’s game may mean that England qualify for only their second World Cup Final ever, and the first in 60 years.

Which brings me onto this month’s playlist. As usual, you can listen along on Spotify.

  • “Three Lions” by Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds. It’s been thirty years since thirty years of hurt. This was the official song for Euro 96, when England hosted the UEFA European Football Championship two years after failing to qualify for the 1994 World Cup (which was also in the USA). That year, England turned a corner and made it to the semi-finals, and have since qualified for every subsequent World Cup. The 1998 re-release was better in my view but this is the original.
  • “(How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World” by England United. Controversially, the 1998 re-release of Three Lions beat this song, the official England anthem for the 1998 World Cup in France, to number one in the singles chart. ‘England United’ consisted of Echo & The Bunnymen, Ocean Colour Scene, Space and the Spice Girls, making it an interesting snapshot of late 1990s British pop music.
  • “Carnaval de Paris” by Dario G. Another 1998 World Cup song, this time featuring instruments from each country playing in the tournament. Including bagpipes, as this was one of the few years when Scotland qualified. Also re-released in 2002, but without the bagpipes. It’s worth watching the Top of the Pops performance.
  • “Vindaloo” by Fat Les. We’re still in 1998, heading to Waterloo with my mum, my dad and my gran and a bucket of vindaloo. A ridiculous song whose video satirises the video for The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony. Fat Les was a collaboration between Alex James from Blur, the actor Keith Allen (father to Lily Allen) and the artist Damien Hirst. Two years later, they would record a version of Jerusalem which was the official England anthem for Euro 2000.
  • “Wavin’ Flag” by K’Naan. This wasn’t the official song for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, but was instead Coca-Cola’s promotional song. The official song was by Shakira, who is not from Africa, whereas K’Naan hails from Somalia and so it probably should have been the official song.
  • “Eat My Goal” by Collapsed Lung. Collapsed Lung were a bit of a one-hit wonder; they did record other songs, but this is the song most people would know them for. A former member of Collapsed Lung now performs as Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer, who we would have seen in Leeds had it not been for me being in hospital.
  • “Sven Sven Sven” by Bell & Spurling. Sven-Göran Eriksson was the first England manager who wasn’t English and was a rather controversial hiring at the time. However, he led England through a reasonably good period in the early 2000s, including two World Cups in 2002 and 2006, and a 5-1 win over Germany in 2001. This song honoured that rather historic win.
  • “We’re on the Ball” by Ant & Dec. We’re back in 2002 and this was England’s official song for that year’s World Cup. Ant & Dec found fame as actors on the Children’s BBC series Byker Grove, but then had a music career in the mid 1990s. This, however, came out once they were well established as TV presenters.
  • “Southgate You’re The One (Football’s Coming Home Again)” by Atomic Kitten. “Whole Again” was one of Atomic Kitten’s better known singles from 2001; 20 years later, it was re-released for Euro 2020 – which, thanks to the pandemic, was delayed to 2021. This new version with changed lyrics honours Gareth Southgate, who managed England for 8 years between 2016 and 2024, including the last time England reached the World Cup semi-finals in 2018. Maybe I shouldn’t mention his missed penalty at Euro 96.
  • “All Together Now” by The Farm. A song about the Christmas Day Truce in the First World War, where both sides ended up playing football against each other, and later used by Sky Sports for their football coverage in the 2000s.

Some predictions for 2026

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As per the past couple of years, I try to channel my inner Mystic Meg, and come up with some predictions for the new year. Last year’s were mostly on target, although some were rather low-ball predictions.

Bradford City will win promotion

I don’t really follow football or support a team, but as my employer currently sponsors their stadium, I check up on how Bradford City AFC are doing on a regular basis. And at the moment, they’re doing quite well; I’m writing this ahead of time but they’re currently third in League One. If they managed to finish the season as one of the top two teams, or win the playoffs, then they’ll win promotion to the Championship, having only been promoted to League One last season. The last time they were in the second tier of English football was in 2003-4.

A big AI firm will go bust

There have been warning signs that the AI ‘bubble’ will burst soon. I certainly think that a ‘market correction’ is likely, and one of the big AI firms will go bust. Indeed, there’s a web site called Pop The Bubble which asks Google Gemini each day when the bubble will burst. At one point, on the 19th December, it predicted the bubble would burst the very next day, but more recently it has revised its projections to some time around September.

Certainly OpenAI, probably the best known AI company, is in trouble – its operating costs far exceed its income. So much so that answers may start including sponsored content. I wouldn’t be surprised that it reaches a point where it runs out of money and its investors get cold feet. That could happen this year, but we’ll see.

There will be some kind of ceasefire in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine will have been running for four years by next month, and both sides have suffered heavy losses. The BBC estimate that 160,000 Russians have been killed, and the real total may be double that. Overall, something like half a million people have lost their lives in the war across both sides.

What the ceasefire will look like remains to be seen. I see Russia as very much the aggressor here, and rewarding it with territory that was part of Ukraine doesn’t seem just, in my mind. Certainly, Ukraine hasn’t wanted to cede territory, but to stop the war it may have to – at least, for now.

The World Cup will be overshadowed by politics

Hosting of this year’s Men’s Association Football World Cup is split between Mexico, Canada and the USA this year, with the USA hosting the majority of games. However, I expect the USA’s new immigration rules for people applying for ESTA could backfire. I expect a tense political situation as various celebrities or politicians find themselves turned away at US airports or denied visas, and the diplomatic fallout that this could create.

I’m pleased that Scotland qualified as well as England this time, and Wales and the Republic of Ireland are potentially still in the running. I doubt I’ll be watching the matches – as mentioned, football isn’t really my thing and the time difference means that some of the matches are likely to be late at night UK time.

Rolled over predictions

I’m also going to roll over a couple of previous predictions:

  • Labour will do poorly in local elections
  • Twitter/X won’t become an ‘everything app’

As a member of the Labour party, I hope it turns a corner this year, but I doubt it’ll manage it in time for the local elections in late spring. As for Twitter/X, I expect it’ll stagnate and Elon Musk will continue to be a terrible person, but it’ll neither shut down, be sold off or launch any major new features.

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