COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

The FA has confirmed that, for the first time since 1966, there will be no official song to mark England's World Cup campaign in South Africa.

According to an FA spokesman, the England management "want to be fully focused on the football".

Several unofficial anthems have been rumoured, including a reworking of 1990's World in Motion by New Order.

Peter Hook, co-author of World in Motion, said an anthem was not a distraction and "enhanced patriotism".

Hook was the bassist in New Order, whose members wrote World in Motion.

He told the BBC that the band members were not big football fans at the time of writing the World Cup song but it helped them get behind the team.

"I don't think it took people's minds off things," he said. "If anything, I think it focussed you more."

The 2006 World Cup song, World At Your Feet by Embrace, charted at number three after a lukewarm response.

UK punk singer Jimmy Pursey, frontman of Sham 69, who recorded their own World Cup song the same year, branded Embrace's track "embarrassing".

There were also efforts from Tony Christie and Crazy Frog.

The previous World Cup song, in 2002 was recorded by TV presenters Ant and Dec.

In 1998, The Spice Girls sang (How Does It Feel To Be) On Top Of The World, written by Echo and the Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch.