Ministers told to stop saying ‘It’s Coming Home’ because England song ‘doesn’t go down well overseas’
MINISTERS have been told to stop saying "It's Coming Home" because the England song "does not go down well overseas", it has been reported.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport officials warned the song lyric could scupper the UK and Ireland bid to host the 2030 World Cup.
⚽ Follow ALL of the latest news and updates from Euro 2020 with our live blog
And in a briefing note to bosses, ministers were urged not to use the phrase with the media - as England gets ready to play Italy in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday.
A Whitehall email seen by , read: "As stressed before, please do encourage your ministers not to use 'it's coming home' with the news media and social media.
"I know we're swimming against the tide, but we know this does not go down well overseas – and strategically we need to do all we can to make ourselves welcoming to the football authorities when the UK and Ireland is scoping out a bid for 2030."
It's coming home are the opening words and chorus to Three Lions, written by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds for Euro '96 in England.
They have become integral to English football with Boris Johnson even urging the nation to "bring it home" after England's nail-biting semi-final win against Denmark on Wednesday.
But many have been quick to misinterpret the tune, with Baddiel forced to defend the hit this week.
Responding to one US writer, who said the song was a 'Brexit psychodrama’, the comedian wrote: "It’s about how we mainly lose but still irrationally believe that this time, hope might triumph over experience.
"It’s about yearning and magical thinking. It’s about the condition of being a football fan.
"Admittedly people have taken Football's Coming Home to mean all sorts of b******s."
One Twitter user replied: "Some people will read anything into things, won't they?!
"It's a love song about the England team and being a football fan in general."
Another said: "It’s the optimism of being a fan of either a club or a nation that never wins b*gger all.
"You still turn up every week thinking that you’ll win."
Fans have been chanting the song all week, with the lyrics ringing out across the country after England beat Denmark 2-1 on Wednesday.
Most read in News
One megafan even took to the skies to scrawl the iconic message on flight radar, plugging in the coordinates on his GPS ahead of the final on Sunday.
Pilot Ben Davis created the masterpiece which shows up on FlightRadar24 in an hour-and-a-half after taking off from Finmere airfield in Oxfordshire on Thursday evening.
Ben said: “It was just to express my support for the country. I thought rather than watching the telly, I said to the wife I had an idea and I was off out."
