Having sat through Mamma Mia: The Movie with my wife, I read with some degree of amusement Giles Smith’s article in the Times about Roy Keane’s dislike of Abba music.

Keane was reflecting on an early match in his managerial career, away to Ipswich Town.

“We lost 3-1 and you find out about different players at those times,” Keane reported. “I swear they were playing Abba before the game - Dancing Queen, I think it was. I think a few of the players liked Abba, that was the bloody problem.”

“There was two of them dancing in the corner. I remember thinking ‘that’s not right’, but none of the players had the balls to say, ‘We’re not listening to this rubbish.’”

Keane went on: “Ipswich would have been outside our dressing-room, listening to Dancing Queen and thinking they’d got a great chance against us.”

Maybe he was wrong says Giles, maybe the Ipswich players thought, “wow, here’s a Sunderland side in touch with a very contemporary form of cultural playfulness and who, furthermore, recognise the eternal value of a strong melody allied to a foot-tapping beat and an easily grasped lyrical motif.”

Ipswich would still have gone out and won 3-1, of course, but it wouldn’t have been Abba’s fault.

Does playing music before a game or in the dressing room make any difference.

Should the music be upbeat, laid back, dramatic, inspirational or funky or maybe a samba or a salsa?

Jerzy Dudek has revealed how Liverpool were making sweet music in a bid to resurrect their faltering season.

The team faced a crucial period in their search for silverware with a Worthington Cup Final clash with Manchester United and UEFA Cup return against Auxerre on the agenda.

Dudek told how a more relaxed Anfield dressing room has played a key role in Liverpool’s revival and that the key factor behind Liverpool’s psychological improvement can be traced to a simple dressing room music centre.

Dudek said: “Even though all our results have not been positive, our performances in recent weeks have been good. We now play music in the dressing room, both at Melwood and at Anfield.

“We are professional enough to concentrate in our own way without taking the mickey and the music sometimes helps us do that. And the boss is okay with it.”

Ironically, the inspiration for the new mellow Anfield came on one of the most high profile, intense occasions in the Liverpool football calendar.

Everton’s visit to Anfield is usually not a day to relax or unwind but, incredibly, it was David Moyes’ team that gave their local rivals the idea for the musical approach.

“When Everton played at Anfield earlier this season they had music in their dressing room.”

Moritz Volz, a German defender playing in the English Premier League recalls how music was used to motivate him as a German Youth International.

“I remember being on the team bus with Germany Under 15s on the way to a game against Turkey. It’s a big game, so we had to be psyched up. As we approached the stadium, Eye of the Tiger came on the stereo, so we got the driver to crank it up. We were punching the air, punching the seats, punching each other.

“Turkey beat us 4-1. That was the last time music was used as part of pre-match preparation in the Motherland.”

Slaven Bilic, the Croatian football team manager, played the music of Croatian ultra-nationalist rock band Thompson to his players in the team dressing room after his side defeated Austria 1-0 thanks to a Luka Modric penalty in their opening Group B match in Vienna.

“Our players were not entirely satisfied,” said Bilic. “So I turned on the CD player and told them to sing because after all we are Croatia and we won.”

Bilic himself plays in a rock band called Rawbau.

Thompson’s songs contain radical lyrics and controversial, sometimes racist comments from lead singer Marko Perkovic, who goes by the stage name Thompson after the American sub-machine gun he toted for Croatia during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.

I wonder if Pim Verbeek has any special motivational music he plays in the Socceroos dressing room before (or after) their games.

If he did, what would it be?

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