''The key line is: 'Thirty years of hurt never stopped me dreaming.' We're setting ourselves up against people who knock England. It's OK to hope we'll do OK."The song roars with patriotism and the writers have included specific allusions to gee up even the most jaded armchair cynic.I still see that tackle by MooreAnd when Lineker scored,Bobby belting the ballAnd Nobby dancing."The aim was to isolate some moments which will raise goose pimples on the back of England fans' necks." Baddiel said. Skinner, Baddiel and Broudie experienced some goose pimples when they went to a recent Bisham Abbey training weekend to explain the song to the England squad "It was nerve- wracking," Skinner said. It's not poncey to be optimistic."Skinner passes the conversational ball to his flat-mate - on and off screen. "The song is aware of the negative aspects of being an England football fan," Baddiel said. "We wanted to acknowledge that we had had some hard times, but now it's a time for optimism.

Everyone is, but that's because of the supporters rather than the players," Skinner continued. In addition to the single and the video, bands such as Blur, The Beautiful South, Black Grape, Massive Attack and Supergrass are contributing to "The Beautiful Game", the authorised tournament album."The fact the FA let us do it at all shows a lot of balls on their part," Baddiel said, "but they felt that Fantasy Football was essentially a good thing.""Although we couldn't have done a song called 'Let's All Go to Luxembourg and Set Fire to a Wine Bar'," Skinner added, quick as a flash."We didn't want the song to be saying: 'We'll definitely win and everyone is frightened of us'. They hit it off immediately.The whole project - music, lyrics, video - had to be vetted by the FA. All kitted out in personalised England shirts ("in South London you have to put your names on all your clothes or they go missing," Skinner quips), the trio perch by a monster crane and expand on why they're doing the song.Broudie, whose work has often been used on Grandstand, was approached by the Football Association, and he in turn approached Skinner and Baddiel.

In between shots, Pedro Romhanyi, the director of Three Lions, assures me of their good faith "They treat football with respect," he says. "This is not about making a pop video; it's about doing something that's good for football."While waiting for Geoff Hurst to turn up for the next sequence, Skinner, Baddiel and Broudie wander down to the nearby dockside. Preparing to shoot a crowd scene for the video to accompany the England squad's Euro 96 song "Three Lions", they are all too well aware of the impossibly naff history of football pop singles. Images of Kevin Keegan, bobble-perm flapping uneasily as he bobs along to "Head Over Heels in Love", are hard to erase. But despite the irreverent tone of Fantasy Football, the BBC2 programme they host, Skinner and Baddiel are taking the project seriously.