Football Songs and Poetry
by David Persey

Whenever 30,000 people watch a game of football you expect some background noise. However, English football fans are notable for not only shouting but singing! Fans sing for several reasons – to encourage their team, praise a particular player or insult the opposition – but one of the main reasons in the English winter is simply to keep warm!

History

It is likely that mass singing at English football matches began when fans at the F.A. Cup Final joined the brass band playing the hymn “Abide with me”. This is a tradition which continues today.

One of the earliest chants was written by Edward Elgar, one of England’s most famous composers of classical music and also a fan of Wolverhampton Wanderers. Elgar set the words “He banged the leather for goal!” to music in praise of Wolves player Billy Malpas. Elgar then used the tune again in his oratorio “Caractacus”.

Old Tunes

The use of classical music in football chants is rare, but many chants that originate from songs recorded fifty years ago are still common today. You will hear Southampton (whose nickname is “The Saints”) fans singing “When the saints go marching in!” whenever there is a success to celebrate. Other clubs adapt the words to go with their own team names. So you will hear “When the Spurs (or Reds or Blues) go marching in” at other grounds. Some of these songs are not even in English in their original form! It is common to hear the songs “Que sera sera” (“Whatever will be will be”) and “Guantanamera” (“Sing when you’re winning”) at games all over the UK.

Some teams have songs which are traditionally sung only by their own supporters. Perhaps the most famous of these are Liverpool’s “You’ll never walk alone” (written by Rodgers and Hammerstein) and West Ham’s “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” (written by Jaan Kenbrovin and John Kellette).

Pop Hits

Some chants at football matches come from pop songs released either by the team itself or its supporters. Everyone knows the hit “Football’s Coming Home” from the 1996 European Championships held in England. But have you heard “Blue is the Colour” (Chelsea, 1970), “Ossie’s Dream” (Spurs, 1981) or “Here we Go!” (Everton, 1986)?

Insulting Chants

Chanting is often used to insult the opposition. If there are not many away fans, the home fans might sing, “Come in a taxi, you must have come in a taxi!”. And if a small team is beating a bigger club they might mock them by chanting “Can we play you every week?” Some of the chants can be quite cruel. Manchester is a wealthier city than Liverpool, so City and United fans often poke fun at those of Everton and Liverpool with chants such as “10 pence, you’ve only got 10 pence*!”

The chants can also get quite personal. If a player looks a little unfit and overweight the opposition fans will chant “Who ate all the pies?” or “There’s gonna be a diet!”. If a player appears to be slow and clumsy you might hear donkey noises in the crowd. Sometimes the insults are too rude to print in the Bangkok Post!

Football Poets

Unless you are a fan of Chelsea there is probably not much to sing about at the moment, so many fans choose to write stories about their club’s glorious past, even if the last time they won anything important was forty or fifty years ago! Many fans also write poetry. In the UK there are over 8,000 internet websites where you can find examples of football poetry, including the British Council’s learnenglish.org.uk. The most successful site, footballpoets.org, has over 1400 poems, with around 50 new ones each month. One of the most popular topics is famous players of the past, such as Stanley Matthews and Billy Wright, who played his last game for Wolves almost fifty years ago!

Political

Some football poets have their own websites, which they use to help change the management or ownership of their clubs. One of the most popular is “Attila the Stockbroker”, whose website contains hundreds of poems about Brighton and Hove Albion FC. His poems were part of a successful campaign by fans to rescue the club from bankruptcy.  Some Manchester United fans tried to use both songs and poetry to express their opposition to last year’s takeover of the club by Malcolm Glazer.

Beautiful

Recently there have been many new poems dedicated to Manchester United legend George Best, another Wolves fan, who died last last month. Some people believe that a talent like Best’s can only have come from heaven, as in the following Haiku poem:

“Heaven’s Eleven
God called his Best home to play
The Beautiful Game”  (Parry Maguire, footballpoets.org, Nov 05)

For years to come we can be sure that George Best will remain a topic for writers and poets, although sadly he is no longer with us…

“You danced around Benfica in your prime
But even you could never hope to out-dance time.” (Barrie Haughton, footballpoets.org, Nov 05)

Vocabulary Exercise

Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right:

1	Mass (adj)	(a)Say bad things about someone
2	Hymn (n)	(b)Successful
3	Chant (v/n)	(c)Make fun of
4	Set the words to music (v)	(d)Unkind
5	Oratorio (n)	(e)A low fat eating plan
6	Rare (adj)	(f)With a large number of people
7	Adapt (v)	(g)Short opera
8	Insult (v/n)	(h)Write the words to a song
9	Mock (v)	(i)Unusual
10	Cruel (adj)	(j)Change something depending circumstances
11	Diet (n/v)	(k)A religious song
12	Clumsy (adj)	(l)A state where a person or company cannot pay back the.money he/it owes
13	Glorious (adj)	(m)Describes someone who often has accidents because they do not behave in a careful, controlled way
14	Bankruptcy (n)	(n)A short song repeated many times

Comprehension Check

1. Why do people sing at football matches?
2. Where do football chants come from?  
3. How would the crowd insult a fat player?
4. Who wrote Liverpool’s anthem “You’ll never walk alone”?
5. Which was George Best’s favourite team when he was a boy?

Answers:

Vocabulary Matching Exercise

1. f
2. k
3. n
4. h
5. g
6. I
7. j
8. a
9. c
10. d
11. e
12. m
13. b
14. l

Comprehension Check:  

1. To keep warm, encourage their team or a player or insult the opposition.
2. Usually from old songs or pop hits.
3. By singing “Who ate all the pies?” (because eating a lot of pies will make you fat)
4. Rodgers and Hammerstein (who also wrote the musicals “The Sound of Music”, “West Side Story” and “South Pacific”)
5. Wolverhampton Wanderers

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