"They think it's all over" is a quote from Kenneth Wolstenholme's BBC TV commentary in the closing moments of the

1966 FIFA World Cup Final The 1966 FIFA World Cup Final was a football match played at Wembley Stadium, London, on 30 July 1966 to determine the winner of the 1966 FIFA World Cup, the eighth FIFA World Cup. The match was contested by England and West Germany, with Englan ...

, when

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

beat

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

4–2 after

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only ...

to win the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

. In the final few seconds of the match, Wolstenholme said: :''And here comes Hurst! He's got...'' :: (Wolstenholme is distracted by some of the crowd spilling onto the pitch) :''Some people are on the pitch! They think it's all over!'' ::( Geoff Hurst scores to put

two goals ahead) :''It is now, it's four!'' Soon after the 1966 victory, Wolstenholme's quote became a widely used expression.

In popular culture

The phrase, along with other calls from English football matches, appears in New Order's song " World In Motion", although in that case Wolstenholme re-recorded it with the slightly different words "Well, some of the crowd are on the pitch. They think it's all over. Well it is now". The British band

The Dentists ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

called their first album '' Some People Are on the Pitch They Think It's All Over It Is Now'' in Wolstenholme's honour; the LP begins with a

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of ...

of Wolstenholme's original commentary. Track #3 on British

folk metal Folk metal is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for exam ...

act Skyclad's EP '' Jig-a-Jig'' is called "They Think It's All Over". The song contains the phrase "They think it's all over. Well is it now?" in its chorus and includes several references to the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in th ...

. In Neil Marshall's ''

Dog Soldiers The Dog Soldiers or Dog Men (Cheyenne: ''Hotamétaneo'o'') are historically one of six Cheyenne military societies. Beginning in the late 1830s, this society evolved into a separate, militaristic band that played a dominant role in Cheyenne res ...

'' the last words that the character Cooper says are, "You think it's all over? It is now." The quotation was also used as the title of the BBC's satirical sports quiz show '' They Think It's All Over'', which appeared on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

from 1995 to 2006. The show has heightened the popularity of the phrase in recent years, though Kenneth Wolstenholme was reportedly unhappy with the use of the phrase for the title of the show. An alternative mix for

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

song " Glass Onion", which appeared on '' Anthology 3'', contained a portion of Kenneth Wolstenholme's commentary. At the end of the track he can be heard shouting "It's a goal!" repeating for several seconds until the track fades. In the

Discworld ''Discworld'' is a comic fantasy"Humorous Fantasy" in David Pringle, ed., ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (pp.31-33). London, Carlton,2006. book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat ...

book '' Unseen Academicals'' the book has two false endings, each followed by "You think it's all over?" and at the actual end "It is Now!"Deep Quotes about Life and Love that make you Think
/ref> BBC parodist Dave Henson used the line to refer to the 1966 winning team during his parody of "

I'll Be Missing You "I'll Be Missing You" is a song by American rapper Puff Daddy and American singer Faith Evans, featuring R&B group 112, in memory of fellow Bad Boy Records artist (and Evans's husband) Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace, who was murder ...

" by Puff Daddy and the Family/

The Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Polic ...

. :''Boys of '66 hey take a bow..'' :''They think it's all over, it is now!'' The video game ''

Kinect Sports ''Kinect Sports'' is a sports video game developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. The game utilizes the Kinect motion-sensing peripheral and was released in North America on 4 November 2010 as a launch title f ...

'', which has football as one of the six sports represented, has two achievements that refer to the quote: "They Think It's All Over..." is awarded when the players wins their first football match, and "...It Is Now!" is obtained when the player wins with a goal scored in the final 10 seconds.

References

{{England national football team England at the 1966 FIFA World Cup Sports television in the United Kingdom English phrases Quotations from sports Quotations from television 1966 neologisms

In popular culture

See also

References