ENGLAND should ban the ‘football’s coming home chant’, according to former Scotland midfielder Graeme Souness.
As Gareth Southgate led the Three Lions to their best ever World Cup finish since 1998, it was accompanied by fan euphoria throughout the nation.
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This included the song ‘Three Lions’ by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds becoming the unofficial anthem again, and it even hit No1 in the music charts.
But England fans shouting that ‘football’s coming home’ clearly irked Souness, who thinks that it should never be heard again.
In an extraordinary column for The Times, the 65-year-old said: “If I was Gareth Southgate, sitting down to write his Russia 2018 report for the Football Association, then top of my notepad would be the following: never allow that song, Football’s Coming Home, to be played again during a major tournament.
“Football’s coming home, is it? So, England effectively own the sport. I don’t think so.
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“They didn’t have a monopoly on it when their teams and the FA were big players in the global power game back in the last century, and they don’t now.
“You can say: it’s just a song, only a bit of fun. But if I’m an opposition player, it would irritate the life out of me. That’s my motivation there and then, and that’s how Croatia said they had channelled the song.”
Luka Modric claims England failed to respect Croatia enough – and that gave his side all the motivation they needed.
Despite taking the lead through Kieran Trippier’s early free-kick, the Three Lions were KO’d by Mario Mandzukic’s extra-time strike.
And skipper Modric claims the build-up inspired his team-mates as they booked a spot in the final alongside France.
The Real Madrid ace, 32, told ITV: “People were talking – English journalists, pundits from television.
“They underestimated Croatia tonight and that was a huge mistake.
“All these words from them we take, we were reading and we were saying: ‘OK, today we will see who will be tired.’
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“They should be more humble and respect their opponents more.
“We showed again that we were not tired – we dominated the game mentally and physically.
“We should have killed the game even before extra time. This is an amazing achievement for us – it’s a dream come true after such a long time.
“We are in the final and that is the biggest success in Croatia history. We have to be proud.”
Team-mate Sime Vrsaljko, 26, also stuck the boot in – claiming it was a case of same old England despite talk of Gareth Southgate’s revolution.
He said: “The all-round perception was that this is a new-look England who have changed their ways of punting long balls up field but when we pressed them it turned out that they haven’t.”
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