How Belgium turned Seven Nation Army into a football anthem
Belgium may be a fine country, but our enthusiasm for it has been tampered by the revelation that it’s at the roots of turning The White Stripes‘ Seven Nation Army into a football (or soccer, depending on your location) anthem.
Once a country notorious for pedophilia and dysfunctional governments, Belgium had recently been on a popularity boom as a holiday destination thanks to its beers, chocolate, food, and historical buildings. The time had come for Belgium to be more than the country people pass through on their way from France to the Netherlands. No more, say we! These villains are the reason our once beloved Seven Nation Army now causes us to start twitching.
If you are somehow confused about the song we’re referring to, then have a listen here:
If that song sounds familiar to you, then congrats: you’ve either been to a football game in the last ten years, or you’ve turned on the radio during that period. The song is the official anthem for the 2018 World Cup, and has come a long way from its simple roots.
The year was 2003 when Belgian football fans overheard the song in a bar, right before going to a game for the Brugge KV team. During the duration of that game against AC Milan, the supporters kept chanting the song, and repeated this during the 2006 game against AS Roma. Perhaps it’s because they won that game, because the Italians decided to take the song with them as their trophy. It soon spread throughout the Fifa World Cup, where it became solidified in football history.
A fuller recounting of this can be found in this video from Middle 8:
If for some reason that hasn’t deterred you from visiting Belgium, and if you’re flying from the US, then let us use this opportunity to refer to another recent piece of content of ours: our budget tips for surviving long haul flights in economy. To be fair, what else would you expect from the country that trolled the art of monuments by having a sculpture of a peeing boy as one of their main sights.
