Scotland W/Cup song for Warriors

It was inspired by Trinidad and Tobago striker Jason Scotland and the Soca Warriors who will face the Scots’ football arch-nemesis England in a crucial World Cup match in Nuremburg on Thursday.

Jason Scotland plays for St Johnstone in Scotland and the Scottish people are openly backing the Warriors in Thursday’s match. The Scots have taken their support for the Warriors one step further by writing a song entitled Scotland, Scotland, Jason Scotland which is currently racing to the top of the UK music charts and selling like hotcakes throughout that country.

The first verse of the song goes like this:

The World Cup Finals are on their way.

With all the teams off to Germany

Brace yourself cause on every screen

There’ll be nothing but the England team

But wait!

There’s hope at hand

We can still support

Scotland, Scotland, Jason Scotland.

Performed by the TT Tartan Army, the song is the brain child of Dabster Productions founder Richard Melvin who has promised to name his first born child after Jason Scotland if the song goes to the “top of the pops.” In an interview yesterday with the Evening News, Melvin said the song was his first project since retiring from Radio Scotland and it started out as a viral e-mail which links to an interactive game called “How Scottish Are You?” on the Scottish Quest website.

The aim of that game is to test people’s knowledge about Scotland and the winners have a chance to hear the song which has now been adopted as the “unofficial Scotland World Cup Song 2006.”

The website has received over two million hits to date and Scotland, Scotland, Jason Scotland was released as a CD last week. Melvin and his wife Emma are expecting their first child in August and if the child is a boy, Melvin has promised to name him after Jason Scotland.

“If it gets to number one, I’ll name the baby after Jason Scotland. My wife is not delighted about the idea of it but if it is a boy, we’ll call him Jason Scott,” he said. Melvin added that the TT Tartan Army is very optimistic that the song will reach the top of UK charts and the group wants to rally all people in Scotland to support the Warriors.

“The main reason we did it was for a laugh. We as Scotland, were not invited to the party (World Cup). This was our way to join in (the World Cup) and still support Scotland (through the Soca Warriors),” he said.

In the same Evening News article, HMV Edinburgh stores spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said the company has been forced to order more copies of the Scotland, Scotland, Jason Scotland CD after they were sold out last week. “A lot of Scottish fans are getting behind the Trinidad team for the World Cup and I think that is part of the reason for the success (of the CD),” he said.

Scottish politicians are divided over whether they should support England or TT. Leader of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond said he would be supporting the Warriors because they have several players who currently ply their trade in Scotland.

The First Minister of Scotland, Jack Mc Connell, is also supporting the Warriors against England.

However questions continue to circulate in the British press about the allegiance of one prominent Scot, Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of English Premiership club Manchester United where English forward Wayne Rooney is based. Ferguson has been accused in some quarters of damaging England’s World Cup prospects by being over-protective of Rooney who suffered a foot injury earlier in the season against Chelsea and whose injury could rule him out until the second round of the World Cup.

In fact, Manchester United has threatened to sue England if they play Rooney and worsen his injury.

The Associated Press reported yesterday that growing concern in the England camp ahead of Thursday’s clash with the Warriors, seems to be pushing coach Sven-Goran Eriksson to “unleash” Rooney against TT. AP reported that the results of a scan on Rooney’s foot last week showed that his injury had healed and the only issue preventing his return is match fitness.

Any appearance by Rooney in the first round is certain to infuriate Ferguson, who believes that Eriksson has gone back on an agreement to wait until the second round before allowing Rooney to play. Eriksson has said he would not bow to pressure from Manchester United over the use of their star player.

With uncertainty hanging over Rooney, an injury in training to teenager Theo Walcott and lingering fitness concerns over Rooney’s strike partner Michael Owen, England arguably have only one fully-fit striker in Liverpool’s Peter Crouch.

Former Scottish international Alan Hansen has criticised Eriksson for pinning England’s hopes on Rooney and said England is now paying for the decision not to include Tottenham Hotspur’s Jermaine Defoe as a fifth striker in the England squad.

The Warriors won the hearts of people worldwide and made World Cup history last Saturday when they held European powerhouse Sweden to a goalless draw in Dortmund. From Australia to the Americas, the international press are hailing the Soca Warriors as the most impressive team to date at the tournament for their historic tie against Sweden.

Scotland who did not qualify for this year’s World Cup in Germany, want the Warriors to defeat England.

The core of Scotland’s support for the Soca Warriors is centered around TT’s striker Jason Scotland who plays for a Scottish club but is yet to take the field for TT in Germany.

In a May 26 exclusive story, Newsday reported that Scotland first expressed its support for the Warriors by adopting Jason as the face of Scottish soft drink Iron Brew’s World Cup campaign. Six members of the Soca Warriors play for Scottish football clubs. The official Scottish National Anthem is named “Flower of Scotland.”