Three Lions: Original lyrics to David Baddiel and Frank Skinner's England song wanted by National Football Museum
David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and Ian Broudie wrote the iconic 'Three Lions' song; in a conversation with Gary Lineker on Twitter over the Terry Butcher omission, Baddiel wrote: "That crossing out happened after the FA told us the image of him 'at war' wasn't acceptable"
Friday 21 May 2021 10:54, UK
The National Football Museum is "extremely interested" in obtaining the original copy of song lyrics to the iconic Three Lions song after one of the anthem's creators David Baddiel posted an image of them written on a piece of paper.
With less than a month to go before the rescheduled Euro 2020 competition gets underway, comedian Baddiel posted an original copy of the lyrics which became England's soundtrack to the tournament hosted on home soil 25 years ago, after co-author Frank Skinner had sent it to him.
Now the museum, which is based in Manchester, wants to put it in a place where everyone can see it so that visitors can reminisce about "when football came home", with the attraction set to re-open at the end of this month.
A spokesperson for the National Football Museum said: "We would be extremely interested in obtaining the original lyric sheet for Three Lions. Given the huge impact that the song had on English football and popular culture, this is an object that our visitors would love to see.
"The museum reopens on 27 May and we will stage a photographic exhibition about The Euros from 11 June. This marks the 25th anniversary of Euro 96 - When Football Came Home."
In an exchange with former England international Gary Lineker on social media, Baddiel also said that the striker's ex-team-mate Terry Butcher had initially been name-checked in the song, but he claims the FA later requested the reference to be removed.
He tweeted: "It being 25 years since Three Lions was first released, Frank [Skinner] just sent me this pic of this piece of paper. I didn't realise he still had it. Should be in the British Museum, surely..."
Lineker replied: "Can't believe Terry Butcher was butchered. Gutted he got the chop," to which Baddiel wrote: "Sorry. As far as I remember that crossing out happened after the FA told us the image of him "at war" wasn't acceptable..."
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Over 1.6m copies (excluding streams) of the song have been bought since its release, making it one of the UK's best-selling singles of all time.
The tune, with its well-known 'Football's Coming Home' refrain, captured the enthusiasm of a nation at Euro '96 as England made their way to the semi-finals where they lost to Germany in a penalty shootout.
The music was written by The Lightning Seeds' Ian Broudie while comedians Baddiel and Skinner wrote the lyrics to the well-known England anthem.
Euro 2020 runs from June 11 to July 11 this summer with Wembley set to host eight matches in the first-ever pan-European edition of the tournament, including Gareth Southgate's side's opener against Croatia on June 13 and their other two group games against Scotland and the Czech Republic.
