UEFA has rejected a request for Frank Skinner and David Baddiel to perform Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home) on the pitch before the Euro 2020 final.
Skinner claimed the tournament’s organisers said performing the song at Wembley before England play Italy on Sunday would be “too partisan and not fair to the Italians”.
The comedian pointed out that Italian opera star Andrea Bocelli sang Nessun Dorma at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico before Italy took on Turkey in the opening game of Euro 2020.
Image: Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home) has become an anthem for England supporters since it was released in 1996
Skinner told Channel 4 show The Last Leg: “There was a suggestion that we sang (Three Lions) on the pitch before the final on Sunday and UEFA said it was too partisan and not fair to the Italians to have that.
“In the opening game, which was Italy versus Turkey, Andrea Bocelli sang Nessun Dorma before the game.”
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In a statement to Sky News, UEFA confirmed a request for Baddiel and Skinner to perform Three Lions on the Wembley pitch was received on Friday but the closing ceremony had “already been finalised”.
“No additional elements can be integrated at this stage due to the very tight countdown schedule and operational complexities ahead of the kick-off,” a UEFA spokesperson said.
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UEFA said Three Lions had been chosen as “the fan song” by the FA and it will be played during the players’ warm-up with karaoke graphics on giant screens, “as has been the case for England’s previous matches”.
Baddiel and Skinner will now perform the song with the Lightning Seeds at London’s 229 music venue in front of 200 England fans ahead of the Euros final on Sunday.
Image: David Baddiel and Frank Skinner have attended several England games during Euro 2020
Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home) has become an anthem for England supporters since it was first released in 1996.
It is one of the UK’s best-selling singles of all time, according to the Official Charts Company, and has had four spells at number one.
It has zoomed up the charts again this week to number four as the England team seek to win their first major trophy since the famous 1966 World Cup victory.
Explaining the intended meaning of the song, Baddiel said: “It’s about how we mainly lose but still irrationally believe that this time, hope might triumph over experience.
“It’s about yearning and magical thinking. It’s about the condition of being a football fan. Admittedly people have taken (Football’s Coming Home) to mean all sorts of b******s.”
Ahead of the final, government ministers are reportedly being urged not to declare “it’s coming home” while supporting the England football team because it aggravates foreign nations.
A briefing note from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, seen by PoliticsHome, said the phrase “does not go down well overseas” and might damage a potential UK and Ireland bid to host the 2030 World Cup.
Government sources acknowledged the e-mail and said the song would not be put front and centre of a bid to host the 2030 tournament.
But they added “the song is about us for us, it’s been a long old wait for a final”.
Image: Southgate celebrates England’s win over Denmark on Wednesday. Pic: AP
Southgate said the nation has “so much to be proud of” and urged fans to stop “looking at the negatives of our own country”.
“People have tried to invade us and we’ve had the courage to hold that back,” Southgate told The Daily Telegraph.
“You can’t hide that energy in the stadium against Germany was because of that. I never mentioned that to the players, but I know that’s part of what the story was.”
Bob Vylan’s frontman has said he does not regret chanting “death, death to the IDF” at Glastonbury – and would do it again.
The outspoken punk duo sparked controversy with their performance at the festival in June, with the broadcast also leading to fierce criticism of the BBC.
But speaking on The Louis Theroux podcast, Bobby Vylan said he stood by the chant, adding: “I’d do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays.”
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BBC bosses grilled over Masterchef, Bob Vylan and Gaza documentary
Vylan claimed this backlash is “minimal” compared with what the people of Palestine are going through – with many losing members of their family or forced to flee their homes.
He said: “If I have their support, they’re the people that I’m doing it for, they’re the people that I’m being vocal for, then what is there to regret. Oh, because I’ve upset some right-wing politician or some right-wing media?”
The musician revealed he was taken aback by the uproar caused by the chant, which was described by the prime minister as “appalling hate speech”.
Vylan added: “It wasn’t like we came off stage, and everybody was like (gasps). It’s just normal. We come off stage. It’s normal. Nobody thought anything. Nobody. Even staff at the BBC were like: ‘That was fantastic! We loved that!'”
A spokesperson at Mindhouse Productions – which was founded by Theroux and produces The Louis Theroux podcast – told Sky News: “Louis is a journalist with a long history of speaking to controversial figures who may divide opinion. We would suggest people watch or listen to the interview in its entirety to get the full context of the conversation.”
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Theroux asked Vylan what he meant by chanting “death to the IDF” – with the musician replying: “It’s so unimportant, and the response to it was so disproportionate.
“What is important is the conditions that exist to allow that chant to even take place on that stage. And I mean, the conditions that exist in Palestine. Where the Palestinian people are being killed at an alarming rate.”
He said he wanted an end to the oppression that the Palestinian people are facing – but argued chanting “end, end the IDF” wouldn’t have caught on because it doesn’t rhyme.
“We are there to entertain, we are there to play music,” Vylan added. “I am a lyricist. ‘Death, death to IDF’ rhymes. Perfect chant.”
He went on to reject claims that their set had contributed to a spike in antisemitic incidents that were reported a couple of days later.
“I don’t think I have created an unsafe atmosphere for the Jewish community. If there were large numbers of people going out and going like ‘Bob Vylan made me do this’. I might go, ‘oof, I’ve had a negative impact here’.”
Vylan’s conversation with Theroux was recorded on 1 October – before the Manchester synagogue attack, and prior to the ceasefire in Gaza coming into effect.
A security guard jailed for plotting to kidnap, rape and murder TV star Holly Willoughby has lost an appeal against his life sentence.
Gavin Plumb was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years last year after being convicted of soliciting murder and encouraging or assisting others to rape and kidnap.
A trial at Chelmsford Crown Court heard that police found bottles of chloroform and an “abduction kit” with cable ties when officers raided the 38-year-old’s flat in Harlow, Essex.
Plumb’s kidnap plan involved attempting to “ambush” Willoughby at her family home, jurors heard.
Plumb argued in his defence that it was just online chat and fantasy.
Image: Police believed Plumb was an ‘imminent threat’ to Holly Willoughby. Pic: PA
He was caught after an undercover police officer in the US infiltrated an online group called Abduct Lovers.
He told the officer, who used the pseudonym David Nelson, that he was “definitely serious” about his plot to kidnap the former This Morning host, leaving him with the impression that there was an “imminent threat” to Willoughby.
Due to the officer’s concern over Plumb’s post, evidence was passed to the FBI, who then contacted police in the UK.
Willoughby, who asked for her victim personal statement to be private, waived her right to anonymity in connection with the charge against Plumb of assisting or encouraging rape.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is appealing the conviction handed down to him earlier this year over prostitution charges relating to his former girlfriends and male sex workers.
He was cleared of more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking that could have put him in jail for life.
The two-page formal notice of appeal, seen by Sky News, was filed in Manhattan federal court on Monday, confirming he will be challenging both his conviction and his sentence.
It lists Combs’s defence council as Alexandra A E Shapiro, and shows a $605 (£450) docketing fee was paid to lodge the formal notice.
More detailed filings are expected to follow.
On the day of sentencing in early October the rapper’s lawyers had signalled they intended to appeal.
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Combs, 55, has been in custody since his arrest last year.
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Diddy jailed for more than four years
His seven-week trial earlier this year included four days of testimony from Cassie, now Cassie Ventura Fine, who told the court she was coerced and sometimes blackmailed into sexual encounters with male sex workers, referred to as “freak offs”.
Jurors were also shown video clips of Combs dragging and beating her in a Los Angeles hotel hallway after one of those sessions in 2016.
Ahead of the sentencing, Cassie also submitted a letter to the judge, calling Combs a “manipulator” and saying she would fear for her safety should he be immediately released.
Image: Diddy and Cassie at the premiere for a film she starred in, just days after the 2016 hotel incident. Pic: zz/Galaxy/STAR MAX/IPx/ AP
Ahead of his sentencing, Combs told the court he admitted his past behaviour was “disgusting, shameful and sick”, and apologised personally to Cassie Ventura and “Jane”, another former girlfriend who testified anonymously during the trial.
He told the court he’d got “lost in my excess and lost in my ego”, but since his time in prison he has been “humbled and broken to my core,” adding “I hate myself right now… I am truly sorry for it all.”
Judge Arun Subramanian, who had rejected bail for the rapper several times before sentencing, told him that he would get through his time in prison and would still “have a life afterwards,” calling it “a chance for renewal and redemption”.
He was facing a maximum of 20 years in prison for the prostitution-related charges, so the sentence was towards the lower end of the scale.
Prosecutors had argued he should spend at least 11 years behind bars, while Combs’s lawyers had called for him to be freed almost immediately due to time already served since his arrest just over a year ago.
Sky News has contacted Combs’s lawyers for comment.