British-German World Cup Relations: Can't We All Just Be Friends, Not Singing Football Hooligans?

Fans who travel to Germany this summer will be singing from the unreconstructed English hymnal. It contains anthemic standards such as Stand up If You Won the War, and Two World Wars and One World Cup. Meanwhile, readers of The Sun have been voting on a new song for the terraces. The winner, sung to the theme from Dad’s Army, is Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Jürgen Klinsmann? It comes complete with air-raid sirens. Sven-Göran Eriksson (who has been on the wrong end of a few football songs in his time) wants the World Cup – with its slogan “A Time to Make Friends” – to be a new beginning. In Free Lions, a guide for England fans, he asks supporters to avoid anti-German songs. Especially Ten German Bombers, which celebrates the RAF’s success against the Luftwaffe. And the lyrics to more appropriate songs, such as God Save the Queen and You’ll Never Walk Alone, have been added to the Foreign Office website. The only problem is, when they’re stuck for lyrical inspiration, England fans don’t tend to think of the Foreign Office.

But they should. The advice about what songs to sing is more than PR. The German police have already warned fans that the Nazi salute and the goose step will not be tolerated. “This simply is a criminal act in Germany,” says Walter Ernstberger, director of police in Nuremberg. And not, as is traditional in England, “a bloody good laugh”. And whistling The Great Escape – if it is done with malicious intent – could actually be enough to get arrested. The message from the German authorities is clear: don’t mention the war.