Frank Skinner says FA needs to cancel Three Lions – Daily Star requires it to be saved

Frank Skinner fears his iconic Three Lions anthem is being ‘cancelled’ by FA chiefs embarrassed because it claims England is the ‘home of football’.

The 69-year-old comic – who penned it with fellow telly funnyman David Baddiel, 62, and The Lightning Seeds’ singer Ian Broudie – said he has been told football execs are left red-faced by the ditty when they meet up with their counterparts from rival nations.

Its famous ‘it’s coming home’ chorus has been chanted by England fans all over the world for 30 years. But Frank claimed it has triggered ‘some embarrassing prawn-sandwich-fuelled chats’ between Football Association bigwigs and rival soccer federation execs who view it as ‘elitist’. The comic dismissed the criticism insisting the lyrics were based on fact.

But he said he feared football execs – including the sport’s global governing body FIFA – were trying to cancel it ahead of the World Cup which starts in the US, Mexico and Canada next week.

Frank said: “I’m told that FIFA is, nowadays, keen to focus on its official tournament song rather than a series of songs from individual countries – a global anthem for its global entertainment product.

“I’m also told that the FA has chosen to distance itself from Three Lions because the suggestion that England is the home of football has led to some embarrassing prawn-sandwich-fuelled chats with representatives of other football associations who view the claim as elitist.

“England spawned the first football association, the first standardised laws of the game, the first official football league and the first official football cup competition. Our claim to the title is, admittedly, largely admin-based.

“But it seems a sturdier origin story than someone kicking a severed head on a 14th-century battlefield. The FA happily designates Wembley Stadium the Home of Legends. I wonder what the Loch Ness monster thinks about that?”

The trio penned the terrace tune for Euro 96 which ended in a heartbreaking semi-final penalty shootout defeat to Germany.

But reincarnations of the song went on to provide the soundtrack to every Lions’ tournament effort since – topping the UK singles charts on four separate occasions.

Its lyrics list a string of iconic moments in English football history and name-check legends Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton, Nobby Stiles and Gordon Banks who played in the Lions’ only major tournament victory – the 1966 World Cup final against Germany.

Not only does this year represent the 30th anniversary of the song but the grim milestone of 60 years of trophy-free tournaments for England.

Frank, who as a ‘music-mad kid’ had ‘day-dreamed about having a No1 record’, said he was so proud of the anthem it used to be his ‘ringtone’ until ‘it went off during a Roman Catholic mass I was attending’.

When he checked into a hotel with his girlfriend – now wife – fans gathered outside their window singing: “He’s having sex. He’s having sex. He’s having… Skinner’s having sex.”

He joked: “Three Lions has generated a lot of love over the years. It’s insane but I’ve been No1 in the UK singles charts more times than David Bowie, Queen, Bob Dylan or The Who.

“But its success has always been firmly tied to the performance of the team. “I received a parcel a few years back containing two framed Guinness World Records certificates.

“One was for having four No 1s with the same song and the other for having the biggest drop from No 1 in a week – a very apt 96 places. All the fickleness of show business, in one big Jiffy bag.”

Writing in The Observer, Frank said it was to be replaced it should not be by Neil Diamond’s ‘non-controversial’ Sweet Caroline.

It had been ‘unceremoniously wrenched from the repertoire of the Northern Ireland supporters’ and was now the ‘soundtrack for a hilarious Hellmann’s mayonnaise advert in which a character called Meal Diamond sings the song with a new lyrical hook: ‘Sweet sandwich time’.’

Frank added: “I feel the FA will now be distancing itself from the song, anxious that it might offend its official sandwich partner, which is, one imagines, part of a triumvirate with its official snack and soft drink partners, together constituting the FA’s corporate meal deal.

“The sad side-effect of all this is that Three Lions has been such a success that the long ‘official England song’ tradition seems to have been discontinued. That makes me sad. The first single I ever bought was Back Home sung by the 1970 England squad.

“If Three Lions is being cancelled we need a replacement. What a beautiful example of a phoenix rising from the ashes it would be if England adopted our failed Eurovision entry for this World Cup.

“Imagine Thomas Tuchel ’s face as the England fans raise the rafters with a fervent, if slightly ironic, ‘Eins, Zwei, Drei’.”

Euro 24 research showed Three Lions was the England fans’ No1 football anthem with 48% downloading it to a playlist ahead of Freed From Desire and Sweet Caroline. Germany fans love it too.

But Skinner’s collaborator Broudie, 67, told Music Week the FA ‘didn’t really like it when I delivered it and I still don’t think they’re very keen on it to this day’.

He said it was because the lyrics focussed on fans’ heartache rather than the team’s bid for glory, adding: “I don’t think they can get around the idea that it’s not about the team and it’s not, `We’re going to win’.

“The song is about the feeling of losing together and disappointment which is a lot of what being a football fan is about.”

An FA source insisted Broudie was wrong and execs had asked FIFA and UEFA to play the tune as one of the team’s official fan songs inside stadiums at several World Cups and European Championships.

They added: “Ian is obviously entitled to his opinion but that suggests the FA clearly has no issues with it.” The FA has not responded to a request for comment.