A 1990s pop song which has become a staple for English football fans – and a major irritant for all others – has done its job and should now be put out to pasture, says one of its writers

And the song is?

Three Lions, of course, co-written by comedy duo David Baddiel and Frank Skinner and recorded with 1990s rock band The Lightning Seeds. It was released in May 1996 and its (now very familiar) chorus of “Football’s coming home” was intended to mark the return of a major championships to British shores – the 1996 UEFA European Championship, which was hosted by England.

Did England go out on penalties?

Funny you should mention it. Yes, they did. To Germany, would you believe? Current gaffer Gareth Southgate missed the all-important final spot kick. “Why didn’t you just belt it?” his mother asked him later, a not unreasonable question under the circumstances. It was this, and many other dismal performances by the England men's national side, which added extra resonance to another famous line in Three Lions, one about “thirty years of hurt”. By the time the England men lost the 2020 final to Italy that had extended to “fifty plus years of hurt – and counting.”

And now?

In the wake of the Lionesses famous victory in Sunday’s UEFA Women’s European Championship final – against Germany, no less,and without recourse to penalties – David Baddiel has effectively said the years of hurt are over and the song should be retired as a terrace anthem. Cue huge sighs of relief from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where, although mirth rather than hurt is the over-riding sensation where England’s failure to win a major competition is concerned, there is a certain antipathy towards the song.

What did he say?

“I’m very happy to think the song would, in a way, be put to bed,” Baddiel told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday, the morning after the historic victory before. “The women have reset the clock.”

Has anyone told the women?

Good point. Anyone watching the post-match press conference with England manager Sarina Wiegman, who is to the M&S power suit what Gareth Southgate is to the waistcoat, can’t have missed the noisy interruption from the England players who crashed the event doing a sort of hokey-cokey two-step shuffle and bawling a certain song at the top of their lungs.

Three Lions?

You betcha. So it may be some time before the song is taken fully out of circulation. One note of caution, though: its replacement could be worse.