The Football Association Press Officer at the time, David Bloomfield, who had been a fan of Joy Division, contacted New Order's manager Tony Wilson with the suggestion that the band record a track for the forthcoming World Cup in Italy. Without any hesitation Wilson agreed.

Bloomfield had seen and heard England's previous World Cup tunes and thought them uniformly dull, with the possible exception of the 1970 ditty "Back Home."

Bloomfield had been inspired by a track by Colourbox called "The Official Colourbox World Cup theme" and he had noticed that the respected BBC Radio DJ John Peel occasionally played tracks by American football teams deeming them good enough to play on his show without a hint of irony.

Watching TV one night Bloomfield found himself watching "Best and Marsh" a concoction of football chat and action clips. When the credits ran at the end of the programme he noticed that the theme music was provided by New Order. In an eureka like moment he knew in an instant that he needed to contact Wilson and get the ball rolling.

There was a bit of a stand-off between the agent acting on behalf of the England squad and Wilson with Bloomfield acting to get the parties talking once more.

The players were by no means all willing to get involved. They were of the view that World Cup records were all dire and many didn't want to be associated with a band that few of them were familiar with. Gary Lineker was an absentee, not wishing to add his support to the official track when he had a World Cup single of his own to contemplate. Less than ten players turned up for the recording session which took place before the squad met up on a Sunday afternoon prior to an international match at Wembley.

However there was a good mood in the studio as the players added their vocals to the backing track that New Order had put together. The John Barnes rap segment being improvised on the spot with Liverpool's Craig Johnstone, who was not involved in the England set-up in any way, penning the rap on a scrap of paper.

The FA placed no restrictions or indeed gave any guidance to New Order although Bloomfield had warned that he didn't want anything associated with hooliganism.

It has been New Order's only number one song in the UK Singles Chart. The song was produced for the England football team's 1990 FIFA World Cup campaign, and features a guest rap by England footballer John Barnes and additional vocals by several members of the 1990 English team and comedian Keith Allen, who had co written the lyric.

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Wikipedia