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.”
An ex-model has tearfully told a court that being sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein when she was 16 was the most “horrifying thing I ever experienced” to that point.
Warning: This article contains references to sexual assault
Kaja Sokola told the film producer’s retrial that he ordered her to remove her blouse, put his hand in her underwear, and made her touch his genitals.
She said he’d stared at her in the mirror with “black and scary” eyes and told her to stay quiet about the alleged assault in a Manhattan hotel in 2002.
Ms Sokola told the New York court that Weinstein had dropped names such as Penelope Cruz and Gwyneth Paltrow, and said he could help fulfil her Hollywood dream.
“I’d never been in a situation like this,” said Polish-born Ms Sokola. “I felt stupid and ashamed and like it’s my fault for putting myself in this position.”
Weinstein denies sexually assaulting anyone and is back in court for a retrial after his conviction was overturned last year.
Image: Weinstein denies the allegations. Pic: Reuters
The 73-year-old is not charged over the alleged sexual assault because it happened too long ago to bring criminal charges.
However, he is facing charges over an incident four years later when he’s said to have forced Ms Sokola to perform oral sex on him.
Prosecutors claim it happened after Weinstein arranged for her to be an extra in a film.
“My soul was removed from me,” she told the court of the alleged 2006 assault, describing how she tried to push Weinstein away but that he held her down.
Ms Sokola – who’s waived her right to anonymity – is the second of three women to testify and the only one who wasn’t part of the first trial in 2020.
Image: Miriam Haley testified previously in the retrial. Pic: AP
Miriam Haley last week told the court that Weinstein forced oral sex on her in 2006. The other accuser, Jessica Mann, is yet to appear.
Claims against the film mogul were a major driver for the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and abuse in 2017.
Weinstein’s lawyers allege the women consented to sexual activity in the hope of getting film and TV work and that they stayed in contact with him for a while afterwards.
An antiques expert from the TV show Bargain Hunt has been charged by police following an investigation into terrorist financing.
Oghenochuko ‘Ochuko’ Ojiri, 53, is accused of eight counts of “failing to make a disclosure during the course of business within the regulated sector”, the Met Police said.
The force said he was the first person to be charged with that specific offence under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Mr Ojiri, from west London, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
It comes “following an investigation into terrorist financing” and relates to the period from October 2020 to December 2021, a police spokesperson said.
They added that the probe had been carried out in partnership with Treasury officials, HMRC and the Met’s Arts & Antiques Unit.
Mr Ojiri, who police described as an “art dealer”, has been on Bargain Hunt since 2019.
He has also appeared on the BBC‘s Antiques Road Trip programme.
In a statement, the BBC said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
A man has been charged after allegedly harassing Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston for two years before crashing his car through the front gate of her home, prosecutors have said.
Jimmy Wayne Carwyle, of New Albany, Mississippi, is accused of having repeatedly sent the Friends star unwanted voicemail, email and social media messages since 2023.
The 48-year-old is then alleged to have crashed his grey Chrysler PT Cruiser through the front gate of Aniston’s home in the wealthy Bel Air neighbourhood of Los Angeles early on Monday afternoon.
Prosecutors said the collision caused major damage.
Police have said Aniston was at home at the time.
A security guard stopped Carwyle on her driveway before police arrived and arrested him.
There were no reports of anyone being injured.
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Carwyle has been charged with felony stalking and vandalism, prosecutors said on Thursday.
He also faces an aggravating circumstance of the threat of great bodily harm, Los Angeles County district attorney Nathan Hochman said.
Carwyle, who has been held in jail since his arrest on Monday, is set to appear in court on Thursday.
His bail has been set at $150,000 dollars (£112,742).
He is facing up to three years in prison if he is convicted as charged.
“My office is committed to aggressively prosecuting those who stalk and terrorise others, ensuring they are held accountable,” Mr Hochman said in a statement.
Aniston bought her mid-century mansion in Bel Air on a 3.4-acre site for about 21 million dollars (£15.78m) in 2012, according to reporting by Architectural Digest.
She became one of the biggest stars on television in her 10 years on NBC’s Friends.
Aniston won an Emmy Award for best lead actress in a comedy for the role, and she has been nominated for nine more.
She has appeared in several Hollywood films and currently stars in The Morning Show on Apple TV+.