FA denies Swedish Cup song

Cardigans singer Nina Persson has sung with Tom Jones

The Football Association has denied reports that Swedish band The Cardigans are to record the official England World Cup song.

The rockers were approached to do the song because the England manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, is also Swedish, reported the Sun.

FA spokeswoman Bev Ward said no decision had been made as to who would sing this year's track.

She told BBC News Online: "We are looking into it, but as yet nothing has been decided."

England face Sweden in the opening group stage in South Korea and Japan this summer.

The Cardigans have had a string of hits in the UK, three of which have hit the top 10.

Skinner and Baddiel have hit the top spot twice

The fight to sing the official song is always a fierce competition.

In the 1970s and 1980s the songs were generally sung by the players and were for the most part critically derided.

Anthem

However, that changed for the World Cup in 1990 when indie dance act New Order achieved the seemingly impossible - credibility for a football song.

World In Motion, featuring rapping by footballer John Barnes, went to number one in the UK.

For the European Championships in 1996, hosted by England, comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel linked up with The Lightning Seeds to produce the anthem Three Lions - which hit the number one spot.

At the last World Cup in France 1998, there was a three-way fight for the top spot.

Lions

The official FA song was Top of the World, written by Echo and The Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr.

It took on a re-issue of Three Lions and Vindaloo, sung by Fat Les, a group comprising of actor Keith Allen, artist Damien Hirst and Blur bassist Alex James.

Actor Keith Allen is part of Fat Les

But, despite the Spice Girls' presence on the single, Top of The World only reached number nine, compared with number two for Vindaloo and a second number one for Three Lions.

At Euro 2000 in Belgium and the Netherlands, Fat Les were chosen to sing the official FA song with their version of Jerusalem, but it just scraped into the top 10.

Who do you think should sing England's World Cup song this year? Should we go for a foreign act - or home-grown talent?

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