England marches on: Is football 'coming home?'

An old refrain is echoing through the streets of England, as the birthplace of football starts to imagine World Cup glory after sweeping past Sweden in the quarter-final: "It’s coming home."

The three-word phrase is the chorus of the 1996 No 1 single Three Lions, penned by Scouse Britpop band the Lightning Seeds and the then-relatively baby-faced comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel.

At the time, "it’s coming home” was a reference to England hosting its first major football tournament since the 1966 World Cup. But the snippet has evolved to refer to both England’s hopes of bringing home the World Cup trophy and the disputed spiritual home of football.

The international governing body, FIFA, says football in its current form was invented in England in 1863.

England will play their first World Cup semi-final in 28 years on Wednesday, the previous being one against West Germany in 1990 — six years before Three Lions was released.