EAST LANCASHIRE football fans with a good singing voice are needed for a ‘football themed opera’ for a Sky Arts show.

Sky Original Gods of the Game: A Football Opera is a brand new opera about corruption in football which will coincide with the controversial 2022 World Cup being held in Qatar.

Sung in English across 90 minutes, this celebration and condemnation of the world’s most popular sport will play to in-person audiences at Grange Park Opera, Surrey in October, airing on Sky Arts, NOW and Freeview shortly afterwards.

The opera will also include the world’s first “footy fan chorus”, a group of football fans who will turn their passion for the beautiful game into an operatic sensation.

With Rovers, Burnley and Stanley fans well-known for their vocal support and the biggest voices are being urged to sign up.

They’ll be given a crash course in opera before performing a specially composed chorus in a UK football stadium.

Filmed footage of the fans turned opera singers will then be played on stage during the opera as part of the performance.

Blackburn Rovers Football Club called upon their thousands of supporters to apply for the unique role.

They said: “Calling all Rovers supporters!

“Are you passionate and enthusiastic about singing? A born performer, but never had the chance?  

“Well, Sky Arts are offering a unique opportunity to appear on TV in a new football-themed opera!”

Gods of the Game: A Football Opera tells the story of two childhood friends, now footballing icons, who join forces to front their nation’s bid to host a World Cup tournament.

As their campaign takes shape, they begin to encounter a nefarious world of bribery and corruption, overseen by the game’s charismatic and all-powerful president.

Enlisting support from the gods of the game, they set out to restore football to its rightful owners – the players and the fans.

The opera comes ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which has been mired in controversy over how the Middle Eastern nation was awarded the tournament, the working conditions of the people building the new stadiums for the competition, and the sustainability of the tournament given the baking conditions in Qatar - which have meant it has had to be moved to Winter - and the sport's low-profile in the nation.

Phil Edgar-Jones, director of Sky Arts and Entertainment, said: “One of our aims at Sky Arts is to move beyond TV from time to time and help create work that lives in the real world, so we’re really excited to bring this brilliant idea to the stage with Grange Park Opera, Factory Films and Kwame Kwei-Armah.

“Football is laced with all the drama you need for operatic treatment – heroes, villains, rivalry, joy, despair; it’s all there and beautifully captured in Gods of the Game.”

Applicants must be free on various dates in August.

To apply to Gods of the Game: A Football Opera, email: footyfans@factoryfilms.tv

Brand new for 2022, Sky Original Gods of the Game: A Football Opera will open in the Theatre in the Woods at Grange Park Opera, Surrey on October 6, 2022, before airing on Sky Arts, Freeview and NOW.