What is given out on the rugby and football terraces - at a streeeeeeeeeeeeeetch - might be described as ritualistic chants, but they are little more than that; certainly not songs. There are sporting songs; a number of serious collections of them (in print, I'm afraid Cap'n), but these are not what Bob Pegg was talking about.
As for publication doing a doubtful service to songs - Don Firth says it all really.
As a folk song enthusiast I spend a great deal of time listening to recordings; as a singer, (when I was one) as far as possible I would avoid learning songs from other singers like the plague. If I wanted mannerisms to be part of my singing, they might as well be my own - there are far too many 'Jonie clones' and Carthy copiers and 'Bellamy bleaters' without my adding to their ranks.
It always used to amuse me that the acusations made towards members of the Critics Group that "those who didn't sound like Ewan sounded like Peggy" invariably came from Carthy or Rose or Jones soundalikes, all of whom sounded like each other anyway - funny old world!
I'm afraid the idea of print being a bad thing went out with James Hogg's mother!
Jim Carroll