{"id":745054,"date":"2026-06-18T18:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/745054\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T18:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:54:09","slug":"its-kicking-off-over-the-best-football-songs-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/745054\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s kicking off over the best football songs | Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A surprising omission from the Guardian\u2019s list of best songs about football (Ranked, 4 June<\/a>) was the Manchester United Calypso<\/a>, recorded by the Trinidadian actor and musician Edric Connor in 1957.<\/p>\n

A tribute to the Busby Babes, it is still sung to this day by United fans at many matches, both home and away. Also, while lacking the catchy\u00a0vibe of the United Calypso, another song surely worthy of inclusion was All I want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit<\/a> by Half Man Half Biscuit. A song from their 1985 chart\u2011topping album Back in the DHSS, it celebrates the dubious pleasures of getting unfairly beaten\u00a0by a neighbouring kid at Subbuteo table\u00a0football. (His\u00a0game,\u00a0his rules.)
Mick Balfour
Leeds<\/p>\n

Richard Gosnell (Letters, 15 June<\/a>) has no need to worry that\u00a0the Fitba\u2019\u00a0Crazy song on Scottish football has been forgotten.<\/p>\n

Georgia Mann on the Essential\u00a0Classics show on BBC\u00a0Radio 3 played it to mark the\u00a0World Cup finals \u2013 possibly to the\u00a0consternation of the channel\u2019s more traditional listeners.
Steve Kibble
Rudyard, Staffordshire<\/p>\n

Many thanks to Richard Gosnell for providing an earworm in the form of Fitba\u2019 Crazy. In the spirit of reciprocity, may I offer Lily the Pink.
Anne Sempik
Beeston, Nottinghamshire<\/p>\n

No debate about football songs is reputable without the inclusion of the History of Football<\/a> by Hamish Imlach, which explains the origins of our venerable sport.
John Starbuck
Lepton, West Yorkshire<\/p>\n

Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A surprising omission from the Guardian\u2019s list of best songs about football (Ranked, 4 June) was the Manchester…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-745054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}