TAKE down the bunting, roll up the flag of St George and put the red and white face paint back in its tin. It is still 48 days until the start of the tournament and England's World Cup dream has already died.

Yesterday saw the first play of the nation's official World Cup anthem. It is called "World At Your Feet", it is by Huddersfield band Embrace and it is rubbish. England do not perform well if their World Cup song is rubbish.

Given that most football-related tracks are awful and that England's major tournament record is chequered to say the least, perhaps the odds on either side of the equation changing this summer were always going to be small.

Let's be honest, when it comes to criminal records, the England squad boast more previous than Reggie Kray.

Take "This Time (We'll Get It Right)", the sing-along-a-schmaltz-fest that rocketed to number two in the charts in 1982. The only thing worse than the song's chorus was its sentiment. "This Time (We'll Get Knocked Out At The Second Round Stage Yet Again)" would have been far more fitting.

Four years later and Peter Reid and Ray Wilkins were jiving their way through "We've Got The Whole World At Our Feet".

Featuring the kind of rhyming that would make a 16-year-old poetry student squirm - the second line, inevitably, was "There ain't a single team that we can't beat" - the track was the prelude to a Hand of God defeat at the quarter-final stage. If God had heard it, little wonder he decided he wanted to be on Diego Maradona's side.

By 1990, England had learned their lesson. Manchester's finest, New Order, were recruited to add some genuine musical ability and Peter Hook took the brave decision to recruit John Barnes to deliver an impromptu rap.

"They'll always hit you and hurt you, defend and attack. There's only one way to beat them, get round the back." Gary Lineker repeatedly did and only a penalty shoot-out defeat to Germany prevented England making the biggest game of them all. The world was in motion and Sir Bobby Robson's side moved with it.

Sadly, though, the Football Association were quickly to take leave of their senses once again. Despite "Three Lions" having provided the backdrop to a successful Euro 96, England's rulers decided not to call on Baddiel and Skinner's skills ahead of the World Cup in France.

The official anthem was sung by England United, a hotch-potch of the good (Echo and the Bunnymen), the bad (Lightning Seeds) and the ugly (Spice Girls). "(How Does It Feel To Be On Top Of The World)" they asked - thanks to David Batty's penalty-taking skills, we didn't find out the answer.

Things weren't much clearer in Japan and Korea, when musical responsibilities were handed to Geordie jokers Ant and Dec.

"We're On The Ball" was almost up to Eurovision standard when it came to kitsch and camp, and England's performance in a quarter-final to Brazil was certainly worthy of nul points.

All of which brings us back to Embrace. As a self-confessed fan of the band, I always suspected them to be a poor choice.

Lead singer Danny McNamara can do swooning choruses and heartfelt lyrics until the cows come home but that's not going to carry you through a tricky first-round game against Trinidad & Tobago.

It's too slow and too serious to be a footballing classic. And where's the shouty chorus that you can still bellow out after a few too many beers?

The Football Association have done it again. Instead of spending the last three months interviewing Steve McClaren, they should have been thumbing their way through a Who's Who's of the pop world.

Never mind "World At Your Feet" - we'll be lucky if we've got Sweden and Paraguay below us thanks to this little number.