It was first used by the the Northern Irish Darts Pro, Daryl Gurney as his walk-on music and latched onto big-time by the sporting world as a whole.
Story broken by the same papers that say councils ban Christmas and you can't sing baa baa black sheep anymore.
NI fans started using it in 2005 10 years before him and he adopted as a fan. American sports been playing it since 1996 in stadiums.
OK so I'll send the towel to the Sun after I have wiped the egg off my face with it. they can then presumably do the same and pass it to the Mail .That said the 'why you can trust the'.. BBC did in effect 'spread the word' via the papers summary roundup on the news website, in part adding to the report legitimacy.
Tbf the BBC didn't have it as a news item , just what was in the newspapers today as they do every day!.
I like three lions too. It's so relatable to any football fan. It's about hopes and dreams and although they've been dashed a hundred times before, you still believe. You don't expect, but you do believe. It's the opposite to arrogance, it's wide eyed wonder. And I disagree that it's aged badly, it's still a great song. In 96 German fans and players loved it and sang it just as much as English fans. You don't get that with a song full of nationalistic arrogance, you only get it if it has universal appeal.
I see it's another made-up Daily Hate Mail story but didn't the Croatia players say after the World Cup semi-final that the arrogance of the song had motivated them to beat us. (I love it by the way)
Think German Fans still sing it and it got into the German Charts after Euro 96. Skinner and Baddiel even performed it on German TVs equivalent of Sports Personality of the Year (in World Cup 66 shirts )
I had googled it earlier and saw it was from the Daily Mail but then noticed lots of other outlets were also reporting it so seemed credible to me.