Everyone’s Been Singing ‘Three Lions’ Completely Wrong

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Now football is almost certainly, maybe, definitely coming home, it’s about time we all started singing Three Lions correctly.

You heard. We’ve all been singing it completely wrong for an embarrassing 52 years of hurt, considered more painful than a tuneless but impassioned group rendition.

After Harry Maguire’s header and Dele Alli’s touch into the back of the net at the quarter-final of the FIFA World Cup, you best make sure you fix up and learn how to belt out the classic anthem.

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It’s coming home. We all have a sneaky suspicion. We can’t escape it and we don’t really want to.

These three little words are everywhere.

All over social media, chanted in every pub across ENGERLAND and they’ve even been plastered throughout Ikea in Gateshead, taunting our Swedish rivals.

But what do they mean? Where do they come from?

Is it really coming home?

Let’s take a little trip down memory lane:

We first heard the phrase in 1996, thanks to the dulcet tones of David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds.

They sang with gusto the year England hosted its first major tournament since the 1966 World Cup.

Now it’s meaning has taken on a much more profound significance, and basically means England will win.

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As it looks more and more likely, it’s only right we do the boys the honour of singing the thing correctly.

Here’s what large numbers of people sing when they sing Three Lions:

‘Cause I remember three lions on a shirt! / Jewels remain still gleaming,
Thirty years of hurt / Never stopped me dreaming.

But here’s how it actually goes:

Cause I remember three lions on a shirt! / Jules Rimet still gleaming,
Thirty years of hurt / Never stopped me dreaming.

If you’ve been getting it wrong, you’re not alone:

In the interest of asking the big questions, let’s address the pertinent issue head on – like Maguire, one might say.

Who or what is a ‘Jules Rimet’?

Well, don’t say we don’t ‘edutain’ you: Jules Rimet was the third ever President of FIFA and served between the years 1921-54.

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But why is he gleaming? Has he been watching penalities and sweating with anticipation and nerves? Not quite. It’s is a reference to the first ever World Cup trophy – which was named after him.

The solid gold trophy, worth £30,000, was stolen, but eventually found in a bush in Norwood. It was stolen again in 1983, while in Brazil, and has never been recovered.

So, somewhere, somehow, Jules may very well still be gleaming?

A good omen, surely?

Three Lions will live on and on.

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Francesca Donovan

A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.