To think this is grammatically incorrect or something?

[tinnedpears]

'It's coming home"
What is coming home, exactly? A football? In which case it should be 'The football's coming home'

Or the cup is coming home? In which case it would surely be 'The cup's coming home'

I'm being a pedant, I know, but it doesn't make sense!!

It’s just an incredibly annoying thing to say, tbh.

Actually, it’s kind of a sentence fragment, now you mention it, because in the phrase itself, there’s no way of knowing what “it” is.

Of course, when used, everyone knows exactly what it means.

Still annoying, though.

I'm not trying to wind anyone up!

It just doesn't make sense!

I was having this conversation with DH the other day. What is coming home (football) and did it ever go away (no)? Where did it go (nowhere)? Where is it coming back from (nowhere)?

Also DH is so pleased with all his hard work getting through to the finals. He’s really put a lot into the team to get them there. (No, he hasn’t left the sofa, yet he seems to be taking lots of credit 😄 ‘we’re in the final!’ Etc) Obvs let him have his fun but god it’s wearing thin now 😄

It's been in Portugal I think.

Which is in the EU.

So it's coming back from there, because Brexit. Or may stay in the EU. It hasn't decided which way to go yet.

I think that's right, anyway.

@Terrazzo

I was having this conversation with DH the other day. What is coming home (football) and did it ever go away (no)? Where did it go (nowhere)? Where is it coming back from (nowhere)?

Also DH is so pleased with all his hard work getting through to the finals. He’s really put a lot into the team to get them there. (No, he hasn’t left the sofa, yet he seems to be taking lots of credit 😄 ‘we’re in the final!’ Etc) Obvs let him have his fun but god it’s wearing thin now 😄

Glad it's not just me then 😂

No. The next one is in Germany in 2024.

Ah Der Fußball kommt nach Hause

It's a stupid, shite song. I wouldn't give it so much head space!

I always thought it was about bringing the world cup home to England if we won it

England was the first country to professionalise football. So it's referring to it coming home to it's own country. Where's it been? Professional football has been all over the world since England made it a professional sport.

@tinnedpears

But how can football come home?

Frank Skinner and David Baddiel gave different interpretations of this on the last leg yesterday

Frank said that football was founded in England and by hosting the 1996 euros tournament it was coming home

Why is it an annoying or stupid thing to say?

Compared to the lyrics of most football songs it’s pure poetry!

Honestly getting worked up about a silly song is pathetic.

But anyway, to me it's coming 'where it belongs', aka home. It doesn't have to have been there for it to be able to 'come home'.

@tinnedpears

I'm not trying to wind anyone up!

It just doesn't make sense!

Is there nothing on Netflix to watch? Out of books to read?

Football is coming home because England is the home of the Beautiful Game.

@MouldyPotato 😂

It doesn't matter what it means. Alls that matters is that It's comin home! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

The song was written for the 1996 Euro tournament. Football was coming home (where it was first professionally organised) to England. The song has been adopted by English fans for international tournaments ever since. I don't even watch football!

Baddiel and Skinner were on The last leg last night and explained.
They wrote it for the 1996 tournament which was taking place in England. So it was meant in relation to this.

Since the final is in Wembley and the football is therefore already here, then it should be "football's staying home". (Or "going to Rome", worst-case scenario...) ...

Whatever you do, OP, don't start trying to analyse Vindaloo by Fat Les.

@tinnedpears the reason they sing “football’s coming home” is because the song was written in 1996 for the European Cup finals that were held in England. The song was implying that both the sport and the cup were returning to their spiritual home as many people think (incorrectly I understand) that we invented it (though a quick google shows we were the first country to professionalise it). It was kind of tongue in cheek about England’s long spell of bad luck and that even though the game and the cup were back in England it was against the odds we’d actually win it...

If you look at the lyrics of the song, with 'it' clearly being 'football', the song is about nothing more than the return of a very large tournament to the original/perceived spiritual home of football.

It's widely sung as a defiant announcement that 'England is going to win', but the lyrics don't allude to anything more than the fact that England won it once when it was held in England and that a lot of people in England haven't given up hope that it could possibly happen again: same location, same team winning. It's actually quite apologetically written, rather than brimming with confidence. As well as being keen football fans, DB & FS are also intelligent, realistic men.

It would be clearer if the refrain went 'England is hosting it again' - but that doesn't really scan or sound catchy, or give people the tenuous excuse that, by singing it, they're meaning 'England is going to win'.

So: catchy song, grammar fine, factually correct, nevertheless widely misunderstood.

Partly x-posted with Adreinnesarmy there.

....I should have refreshed the page first!

Yes but is it an actual ball or the game and how is it coming Home, does it live here?
And why will it come home if we win?
Makes no sense at all - like all the other shite that surrounds the game