THE SOUND OF MUSIC
According to Keith Allen, lead singer of Fat Les, legendary bassist Guy Pratt made more money from just being the producer of ‘Vindaloo’, the unofficial England World Cup song for the 1998 tournament, than from playing with Pink Floyd.
Despite some highbrow pundits attempting to elevate Vindaloo into a lofty comment on the English identity, perhaps on account of Blur’s Alex James and artist Damien Hirst also being part of the band, the song and accompanying video (a bizarre parody of The Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony) made little sense, but it mattered not. Rhyme or reason might have been lacking: Allen later revealed that the entire concept of Vindaloo only came about because it was the only thing he – who, tipsy and hungry, co-wrote the song in Pratt’s basement after a night in The Star pub on Portabello Road – could think of to rhyme with Waterloo, the railway station from which Londoners then took the Eurostar to France and the tournament. Regardless, Vindaloo was a bonafide hit and such was the reach and popularity of the song that even the Scottish fans were caught copying the English tune (albeit amending the lyrics to ‘Irn-Bru’).
From that moment on, unofficial World Cup songs have become big business. Subsequents efforts have been mixed, some of them created organically by fans, some of them created in the backrooms by celebrities and music executives desperately clawing for a bit of the spotlight. Yes, Will Grigg may have been on fire, but at least that was preferable to enduring Freddie Flintoff‘s cover of Rasputin for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, a song backed and financed by a betting company.
Football Daily regrets to inform you that things have become even more dystopian, with this year’s early contenders for the Geopolitics World Cup largely AI-generated abominations. One song in particular, though, has set the internet ablaze: ‘Imbattables’ (or ‘Unbeatable’) by a French artist named Crystalo has already been streamed millions of times. Catchy sure, an intimidating war-cry yes, but still AI dribble that has thankfully been largely ignored inside France and criticised for not promoting actual French musicians.
If you are interested in an unofficial World Cup song with actual substance that hasn’t been created by a series of Orwellian prompts, please enjoy this excellent effort from Scottish musician/footy journalist JJ Bull, who has released an unofficial anthem for The Tartan Army, a soaring LCD Soundsystem-soaked call to arms that will hopefully be doing the rounds in the clubs of Glasgow before Scotland’s 2am kick-off (!) in their World Cup opener against Haiti. Failing that, any songs about buckets of curry or Irn-Bru are warmly welcome in the faces of our AI overlords.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
A hat-trick of international liveblogs for your reading pleasure! Scott Murray is in charge for Bosnia & Herzegovina 2-3 Italy, as the Azzurri bid to qualify for their first World Cup since 2010. Yara El-Shaboury will mop up the three other GWC playoffs – Czech Republic 1-2 Denmark, Kosovo 0-2 Turkey and Sweden 4-1 Poland – in our clockwatch, while Simon Burnton will take care of England 3-1 Japan.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“People [have] obviously lost their jobs … they come to the line, pick up food, take what we give them” – Leonardo Fabian Alvarez explains why the backyard of Diego Maradona’s childhood home is now being used as a soup kitchen to help those experiencing poverty due to unemployment in the working-class neighbourhood of Villa Fiorito in Buenos Aires.
How cruel life is. When any one of four superb letters yesterday could have potentially won letter o’ the day it goes to a usual suspect … and it’s prizeless. A bit like Macclesfield nearly capturing all the headlines in this year’s FA Cup, only to be outdone by Port Vale … but Manchester City triumphing in the end. Keep up the good/bad work” – Andy Morrison.
Arsenal are indeed, despite what is reported elsewhere, still in the running for the quadruple. This would consist of winning the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in addition to the most prestigious Spurs relegation. Fingers crossed!” – Mike Kovacs.
Many thanks for the picture of Charlton and Best at Crystal Palace in 1969 (yesterday’s Memory Lane, full email edition). First game I attended as a young United fan. My dad, a City fan, took me” – Simon Webber.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Andy Morrison. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
Our resident cartoonist, David Squires, on Roy Hodgson staying down with the kids on his return to Bristol City.
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OFF COURSE
After a recent poll overwhelmingly found that football fans wanted things to go back to the way they were, thank you very much, the brainbots at Fifa have decided that rather than scrapping VAR or revisiting the very, very silly handball law, they will instead introduce a potential new offside rule, devised by Arsène Wenger (now a Fifa suit, remember), which will be trialled in the upcoming Canadian Premier League season. Under the revised approach, an attacking player will be considered onside if at least one part of their body that can legitimately be used to score (ie not the hands/arms) is in line with (or behind) the second-to-last defender. A player will only be ruled offside if there is a gap – or “daylight” – between themselves and the defender. In effect, attackers must be fully beyond the second last defending player to be penalised, so potentially a complete rewrite of the current laws. “This is an important pilot,” parped Wenger. “By testing this new interpretation in a professional competition, we can better understand its impact, including in terms of improving clarity and the flow of the game and promoting attacking play. We look forward to analysing the results of the trial phase.”
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
“I left as a creditor. We had to go to the bank and beg them to give us a moratorium on our mortgage because we couldn’t pay it. I do have fond memories of my time, despite the fact I should have nightmares.” Roy Hodgson, actually 78, is back in charge at Bristol City, 44 years after they fired him.
Spurs are close to appointing Roberto De Zerbi as their manager, it says here.
Eddie Howe is, seemingly, on the ropes at Newcastle. “I expect to have a great run to the end of the season and we’ll talk about the future when it’s time,” warned David Hopkinson, the club’s chief suit. “Right now, we’re focused on this season’s competition.”
MLS commissioner Don Garber, unsurprisingly, doesn’t think Mohamed Salah should avoid the league when he leaves Liverpool – as recommended by Ibrahim Hassan, Egypt’s national team director. “Leo Messi is the most popular player in the world,” tooted Garber. “He was, and he still is. I’d be happy to send an Apple subscription to the head of the Egyptian FA so he can watch as many Messi games as he’d like.”
Sarina Wiegman has sprung a surprise by naming 17-year-old Erica Meg Parkinson, who plays for the Portuguese side Valadares Gaia, in her England squad for next month’s World Cup qualifiers against Spain and Iceland. “She was speechless but very happy, surprised and excited of course,” tooted Wiegman. “She’s ready to come in.”
With the Geopolitics World Cup just 72 days away, Ghana have sacked Otto Addo, their head coach – or, as the official statement has him, “Otto Addo effective immediately”, following four friendly defeats in a row. The Black Stars will compete in Group L – L! – against England, Croatia and Panama.
And fresh from propelling the Socceroos to a flamin’ 5-1 victory over Curaçao with two goals, Nestory Irankunda has revealed he has another goal in mind, declaring that he wants to race the national 200m champion Gout Gout. “Two completely different sports, but we’re both athletes,” trumpeted the 20-year-old. “I’d love to race him one day.”
STILL WANT MORE?
Kosovo face Turkey for a place in the GWC, having only joined Fifa in 2016. Nick Ames reports from Pristina.
Kylian Mbappé, Hugo Ekitike, Ousmane Dembélé, Rayan Cherki, Michael Olise, Désiré Doué, Maghnes Akliouche; the France squad boasts an array of attacking riches perhaps unrivalled in football history. Raphaël Jucobin has more.
And Jacob Steinberg has written on what Thomas Tuchel has to prove against Japan after that drab draw against Uruguay.
MEMORY LANE
19 July 1966: Should Italy fail to qualify for the World Cup tonight, for the third successive time, would it rank as the Azzurri’s greatest humiliation? North Korea’s Pak Doo-ik says not. Here he is scoring the winning goal at Ayresome Park to send Italy out at the World Cup group stage.
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