Not a chant, but in China you’ll hear “Zhongguo jiayou!”, meaning basically “Go China.” Literally, “jiayou” translates to “add oil.”
A supposed english soccer chant I heard of from a standup comic: “If you won the war, stand up.” (Followed by all the Brits rising, of course)
Also, contrary to popular belief, the Australian national anthem is NOT ‘Waltzing Mathilda’.
Although they have officially dropped the “Deutschland über alles” verse, even though it is not as imperialist as it sounds. AIUI, it really means “Germany more than anything” rather than “Germany above other countries”. It was a call to national unity, written at a time when Germany was a looser confederation of states.
Here is an article on national World Cup chants. http://www.npr.org/blogs/showmeyourcleats/2010/07/06/128335191/world-cup-chants-cheer-them-on-in-their-language
Swedes just chant “Heja, Sverige!”, meaning something like “come on, Sweden”.
There are many different chants in Spain. Perhaps the most popular in recent years runs like this:
"Yo soy, español, español, español [repeat time after time until the chanting dies out naturally]
Which simply means “I’m Spanish, Spanish, Spanish.” Yes, nation chants are not the most imaginative
Another common English football chant when playing Germany (sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle)
One World Cup and two World Wars, doo-dah, doo-dah
Ah, England. Land of Pope, Dryden, Milton, casual racism and xenophobia…
Not a chant as such, but showing every other nation how to sing for your country, during a match against Spain in Euro 2012 (which they were losing), the Irish fans spontaneously burst into a 5-minute long rendition of The Fields of Athenry, stopping the German commentator dead in his tracks.
Brings a lump to my throat, and I’m not Irish.
…does any country have dibs on Olé, Olé, Olé?
And not really a chant, but Always Look on the Bright Side of Life seems to be an auxiliary British anthem.
대한민국! 대한민국!
(Dae-han Min-guk! Dae-han Min-Guk!)
(Republic of Korea! Republic of Korea!)
Hmm. Doesn’t sound as catchy in English.
I listened to it. My guess is that the commentator shut up because he was listening, trying to figure out just what they were singing.
Also, it’s not a chant, but during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, I first learned about the vuvuzela and its importance in South African football culture. And of course Wikipedia has a list of football songs and chants.
Arsene Wenger was working for the French commentary team and he asked them to be silent so they could listen to the fans singing.
My guess is that the German commentator did the same.
And sipping tea.
Japan:
Nippon! … Nippon! … Nippon! …
Finland:
Suomi! clap clap clap Suomi! [and so on…]
Push 'em back. Push 'em back. Waaaaay back!
Hey, it was a* small* nation. Like a football field, even.
In 1998, an enterprising young filmmaker named Tony Wilson finagled his way into having the Australian Broadcasting Corporation pay for him to go to the World Cup in Paris, to investigate this phenomenon. His results (4min long), IIRC, are sweet and interesting.
The show this was filmed for, Race Around The World, was an amazing early competitive reality show. It also introduced John Safran to the world.
"Coo roo coo coo coo coo coo coooooo…:
Let 'em all go to hell… except cave 76!
Same for Mexico: Me-ji-co clap clap clap Me-ji-co…etc.
PUR:
“Yo soy Boricua, p’a que tú lo sepas!” – “Just so you know, I’m Puerto Rican”. Lifted from some popular song refrain, I believe. I suppose it’s to let the other guys know who is it that’s beating them (since not surprisingly many will think “hey, wait, who? they have their own team?”)…