The 20 best songs about football, from Rod Stewart to The Fall

This selection runs from Rod Stewart's Touchline (2021), a sentimental song about fathers, sons and the touchline, through a wide range of styles — pop, punk, indie, rap and dub — to The Fall's Kicker Conspiracy (1983) at number one. Early- and mid-list highlights include Sultans of Ping FC's Give Him a Ball (And a Yard of Grass), which captured Nigel Clough's elegance; Serious Drinking's Madness-esque Love on the Terraces, a boy-meets-girl story amid terrace violence; and Genesis's curious Match of the Day, which sounds like football seen by public schoolboys.

Los Campesinos! equate defeat with relationship breakdown, Aitch name-checks Alex Ferguson and Teddy Sheringham in Business, Half Man Half Biscuit find a reason to miss a dreary Checkatrade Trophy tie, and Juice Menace supplied a spare, haunting official track for the Welsh FA.

Wales

rod stewart, touchline, the fall, kicker conspiracy, sultans, serious drinking, genesis, los campesinos, aitch, teddy sheringham