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I go to football matches to watch football. If I wanted to see someone sing I'd go to a gig.
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Giggs and Bellamy not singing GSTQ
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Southwick_Seagull
Well-known member
- Oct 8, 2008
- 2,035
I would be happy to bet that there is no correlation between singing the national anthem and having a good game, it doesn't matter in the slightest if a footballer sings the national anthem before the game or not. Singing it doesn't automatically make you more passionate or care more either, same goes for managers who rant and rave on the touchline, 'passion' is easily the most overrated quality that English fans care about. Yes you need to have a desire but this can be seen and used in more productive ways than singing a song. It's a turgid song anyway, in my opinion of course.
BadFish
Huge Member
- Oct 19, 2003
- 17,935
Not singing words you don't agree with is weird?
Personally I prefer to think about what comes out of my mouth and decide if it is something I want to say.
hitony
Administrator
I will merge this with the main thread about this subject.
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- #185
Des Kelly sums it up about right in my book. I particularly like the part where he questions whether Giggs will be giving up his OBE if he is so anti royalist ? As for Ifieke, born in america to nigerian parents , and she's getting all precious about being scottish ?
Let's hear it if you're British - Des Kelly | Mail Online
Let's get this straight. Everyone representing Great Britain during this Olympics is participating in a form of national service, whether they like it or not.
It’s not military duty, of course, and I wouldn’t be so crass as to draw a direct parallel, not when men and women fresh from postings in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere are around us at the Olympic Park helping the spectacle of the 2012 Games to take place.
But the phrase 'national service' has meaning and relevance in a sporting context too, since every single one of the athletes draping themselves in the Union flag over the course of the next 16 days is representing this nation. And that honour carries with it certain expectations and responsibilities
The first is to show some respect for the flag they are here to represent. And one of the ways to do that is to sing the anthem.
The sight of Welsh players standing there tight-lipped as the camera panned along the line of the British football team at Old Trafford on Thursday night was embarrassing. It was rude, dispiriting and out of keeping with the Olympian spirit.
This is a quite simple scenario. If you’re British enough to wear the Team GB badge and represent Britain at the Olympic Games then you should be British enough to sing the National Anthem.
That just happens to be God Save The Queen. So sing it. Of course, if any Welshman or woman, any Scot or Northern Irish soul decides in a private capacity they are unwilling to do this, they are perfectly entitled to that view. One of the great freedoms this country offers is the freedom to say parts of it stink. I actually think the anthem is a bit of a dirge. See?
But when you elect to represent the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on the world stage any claim to be ambivalent about the concept of Team GB disappears.
I’m staggered the Welsh players — and Ryan Giggs in particular —even put themselves in such an ignoble position. Their little gesture of silent protest was clearly pre-planned. So if coach Stuart Pearce knew in advance Giggs and Co had some kind of ‘issue’ with the anthem, then the Manchester United player should never have been chosen to captain the side in the first place.
As for the skipper, if the anthem really is such an ordeal to him, perhaps Giggs might also like to review the honour he received from the Queen in December of 2007 and stick his OBE in the post back to Mrs E Windsor c/o Buckingham Palace, London.
The idea that anyone is turning up for the Olympics on sufferance or with conditions attached to their participation is infuriating. Appearing at the London Olympics for Britain is an extraordinary privilege.
What on earth was the point of standing there like a dummy while the anthem played anyway? As gestures of dissent go, it was fairly puerile. It was hardly a Black Power salute circa 1968. And, the last time I checked, the Welsh were not an overtly oppressed race these days. If that were the case, Robbie Savage would not be allowed on television.
The posturing from our women footballers was equally preposterous. Two Scots, Kim Little and Ifeoma Dieke, refused to join in with God Save The Queen before their midweek victory over New Zealand.
Little told a radio interviewer: ‘I personally probably won’t sing (the National Anthem) but we’ll be standing there proud to represent the country. It’s just a personal choice for me.’
Someone should explain to Little that she has already made her personal choice. She could have stayed away; she could have chosen to stick with her Scottish allegiance rather than see it subsumed into Team GB. But, no, Little chose to be part of the team. So she should behave like part of the team.
This doesn’t often happen in other sports. The Welsh members of the women’s hockey team have no issue with the anthem. I cannot recall any dissent among the Scots in the cycling. Is football unique in its tribal arrogance?
Yes, there are English footballers who have declined to sing the anthem in the past. But Roy Hodgson has changed that and even a reluctant Wayne Rooney joined in at the European Championship.
Pearce should follow suit. No doubt some individual members of Team GB arrived at the athletes’ village under the impression they are running, jumping or throwing only for themselves. They are soon disabused of that notion.
They discover they are competing on behalf of all the proud and enthusiastic people who lined the streets for a fleeting glimpse of the Olympic torch as it passed by, regardless of wind, rain or blazing sun.
They find they are at London 2012 for the ordinary people who have scrimped and saved to buy a ticket to an event — ANY event — just so they can share in the greatest sporting occasion these isles will host in our lifetimes.
They are doing it for the tens of thousands in front of the big screens in the parks of London, Cardiff, Swansea, Edinburgh, Belfast and right across the UK; the tens of thousands in the stadia; the millions tuning in across the nation and the billions more watching around the globe. That is why the British public will cheer on competitors they might not know, in sports they don’t fully comprehend, as if they were rooting for a member of their family.
They are a part of Team GB too. That is the burden the lucky 541 who make up our Olympic team must bear.
Let's hear it if you're British - Des Kelly | Mail Online
Let's get this straight. Everyone representing Great Britain during this Olympics is participating in a form of national service, whether they like it or not.
It’s not military duty, of course, and I wouldn’t be so crass as to draw a direct parallel, not when men and women fresh from postings in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere are around us at the Olympic Park helping the spectacle of the 2012 Games to take place.
But the phrase 'national service' has meaning and relevance in a sporting context too, since every single one of the athletes draping themselves in the Union flag over the course of the next 16 days is representing this nation. And that honour carries with it certain expectations and responsibilities
The first is to show some respect for the flag they are here to represent. And one of the ways to do that is to sing the anthem.
The sight of Welsh players standing there tight-lipped as the camera panned along the line of the British football team at Old Trafford on Thursday night was embarrassing. It was rude, dispiriting and out of keeping with the Olympian spirit.
This is a quite simple scenario. If you’re British enough to wear the Team GB badge and represent Britain at the Olympic Games then you should be British enough to sing the National Anthem.
That just happens to be God Save The Queen. So sing it. Of course, if any Welshman or woman, any Scot or Northern Irish soul decides in a private capacity they are unwilling to do this, they are perfectly entitled to that view. One of the great freedoms this country offers is the freedom to say parts of it stink. I actually think the anthem is a bit of a dirge. See?
But when you elect to represent the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on the world stage any claim to be ambivalent about the concept of Team GB disappears.
I’m staggered the Welsh players — and Ryan Giggs in particular —even put themselves in such an ignoble position. Their little gesture of silent protest was clearly pre-planned. So if coach Stuart Pearce knew in advance Giggs and Co had some kind of ‘issue’ with the anthem, then the Manchester United player should never have been chosen to captain the side in the first place.
As for the skipper, if the anthem really is such an ordeal to him, perhaps Giggs might also like to review the honour he received from the Queen in December of 2007 and stick his OBE in the post back to Mrs E Windsor c/o Buckingham Palace, London.
The idea that anyone is turning up for the Olympics on sufferance or with conditions attached to their participation is infuriating. Appearing at the London Olympics for Britain is an extraordinary privilege.
What on earth was the point of standing there like a dummy while the anthem played anyway? As gestures of dissent go, it was fairly puerile. It was hardly a Black Power salute circa 1968. And, the last time I checked, the Welsh were not an overtly oppressed race these days. If that were the case, Robbie Savage would not be allowed on television.
The posturing from our women footballers was equally preposterous. Two Scots, Kim Little and Ifeoma Dieke, refused to join in with God Save The Queen before their midweek victory over New Zealand.
Little told a radio interviewer: ‘I personally probably won’t sing (the National Anthem) but we’ll be standing there proud to represent the country. It’s just a personal choice for me.’
Someone should explain to Little that she has already made her personal choice. She could have stayed away; she could have chosen to stick with her Scottish allegiance rather than see it subsumed into Team GB. But, no, Little chose to be part of the team. So she should behave like part of the team.
This doesn’t often happen in other sports. The Welsh members of the women’s hockey team have no issue with the anthem. I cannot recall any dissent among the Scots in the cycling. Is football unique in its tribal arrogance?
Yes, there are English footballers who have declined to sing the anthem in the past. But Roy Hodgson has changed that and even a reluctant Wayne Rooney joined in at the European Championship.
Pearce should follow suit. No doubt some individual members of Team GB arrived at the athletes’ village under the impression they are running, jumping or throwing only for themselves. They are soon disabused of that notion.
They discover they are competing on behalf of all the proud and enthusiastic people who lined the streets for a fleeting glimpse of the Olympic torch as it passed by, regardless of wind, rain or blazing sun.
They find they are at London 2012 for the ordinary people who have scrimped and saved to buy a ticket to an event — ANY event — just so they can share in the greatest sporting occasion these isles will host in our lifetimes.
They are doing it for the tens of thousands in front of the big screens in the parks of London, Cardiff, Swansea, Edinburgh, Belfast and right across the UK; the tens of thousands in the stadia; the millions tuning in across the nation and the billions more watching around the globe. That is why the British public will cheer on competitors they might not know, in sports they don’t fully comprehend, as if they were rooting for a member of their family.
They are a part of Team GB too. That is the burden the lucky 541 who make up our Olympic team must bear.
Dick Knights Mumm
Take me Home Falmer Road
Give it up. It is just meaningless twaddle.
the wanderbus
Well-known member
I would be amazed if they've never met the queen especially as Giggs has an OBE. Perhaps you could stick to commenting on things you know (little) about....like your "amazing" chairmen/players/acadamy/fans/turnstile operators/teaboy/charlady.
the wanderbus
Well-known member
Seriously. By playing for GB they are accepting that they are British.By not singing the anthem because they think it's English they are confirming their ignorance. Personally I couldn't give a crap either way but it does make the Welsh players look stupid.
Imagine the conversation
Why dont you sing the national anthem?
Because I'm Welsh
But its the anthem of the whole of GB
Yeah but I'm Welsh
But your representing GB
Yeah I know
So why don't you sing the British national anthem?
Because I'm Welsh.............
and so onand so on ad infinitum.
I don't recall many, if any, Welsh runners,swimmers, boxers ect trying to force a nationalistic point they're happy to be at the games, probably because they're proper athletes not self-serving overpaid glory boys
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The Large One
Who's Next?
The anthem, or the whole 'you're not British if you don't sing the anthem'?
The Large One
Who's Next?
Is that the reason everyone has landed upon to stoke this nonsense - that they're not singing it because they're Welsh?
If I won a gold medal (don't laugh), I wouldn't sing it. And I'm English. I'd indulge in quiet, respectful contemplation.
A truly dreadful article. The argument appears to be "Don't like our national anthem? Well abandon your principles because you are representing Britain, because I say so"
Here is the important bit:
That ought to be good enough for any of us. There are several perfectly valid reasons not to want to sing the anthem, and ultimately it is a free country and to sing the anthem or otherwise is down to personal choice - a respectful silence is fine. I'd think differently if the athlete turned their back or whatever, or made some political sign or something, but there is NOTHING wrong with just staying quiet.Little told a radio interviewer said:
Both.
I think so, yes. So you've never sung anything like 'mumma, just killed a man' or 'like a bat out of hell I'll be gone when the morning comes'. I'd think that's unusual, but each to their own.
the wanderbus
Well-known member
Do you believe the reason is anything other than trying to show their Welshness? As I've said I don't really give a crap whether its sung or not , I don't know why it's even played at any stage other than the medal ceremony. And I don't think GSTQ will be needed at that stage!
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So that's your argument is it? People who refuse to sing the national anthem out of a point of principle are weird because they don't mind singing a nonsensical Queen number when doing karaoke. Erm, righto.
FFS.
the wanderbus
Well-known member
Surely those principles have been abandoned by agreeing to represent GB?
The Large One
Who's Next?
There could well be any number of reasons as to why they don't sing it, all of which at present are guesswork for the rest of us. However, what I find far more arrogant is the assumption that it's because they're Welsh. There is a possibility that it could well be that, but I'm certainly not going assume that.
I'll wait to find out what the reason(s) is/are - should they needlessly wish to tell us.
BadFish
Huge Member
- Oct 19, 2003
- 17,935
I once sung 'Liverpool' at some Juve fans and 'let's all celebrate 1958' to some Man U fans. I didn't feel too good about it on reflection and decided to be a bit careful about what I sing.
Never sung Queen or Meat in public because one again I fundamentally disagree with them.
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User removed 4
New member
- Thread starter
- #199
And you'd refuse to sing it because you dont agree with the sentiments behind it , even this is a bit silly as it wouldnt really hurt would it ? do you think its a coincidence that giggs and the rest of the of the pursed lipped welshmen are all staunch republicans, or that they wont sing it purely because they are welsh ?
That made me chuckle