England’s interim manager Lee Carsley has intimated that he will not be singing the national anthem as his team takes on Ireland in the Nations League in Dublin today – his first game in charge. Carsley is at least being consistent in this, he similarly demurred as a player for Ireland and when he was England’s under-21 coach. This clearly isn’t just an aversion to the admittedly dirge-like ‘God Save the King’. But whether he joins in with his team today is a bit more of an issue.
Is it too much to ask to belt out a few verses of ‘God Save the King’?
Carsley has defended his career long anthem-phobia, saying he needs to ‘focus’ on the game ahead, and maintain his concentration. The Birmingham-born coach, who won 40 caps for Ireland and played for six English clubs before his stint with the under-21s, said that he respects the anthem but in his previous jobs was always ‘wary’ about his mind ‘wandering off’ in the build up to kick-off. ‘I was really focused on to the football and I have taken that into coaching’ he said.
No one is suggesting that Carsley intends any disrespect, but as an explanation, this is surely a little weak. Is it too much to ask to belt out a few verses of ‘God Save the King’ (the ailing King let’s remember) as all the previous incumbents of the England hot seat, with the exception of the monolingual Fabio Capello, have done? Would it really break the England coach’s zen like concentration and throw him off his game? And how much ‘focus’ does a manager, largely impotent in the moments before kick-off, actually need?
Admittedly, not every England player has sung the anthem (Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville chose not to for a while). But many players would say that rather than being a distraction, singing the anthem actually helps them, and fosters a sense of unity and belonging to boot. And as for distractions, what could be more unsettling for players than being expected to sing but seeing their manager apparently not bothering? It will surely do nothing for the harmony and shared purpose a team needs.
What Carsley doesn’t seem to appreciate is that what makes international football interesting and important is that it retains a powerful element of extra-sporting cultural significance, which is manifested, and to an extent maintained, by the small rituals associated with it. This is particularly the case for the singing of the anthem, the one moment in the game when supporters and players can be entirely as one.
Even people who hate football get drawn into the big international tournaments. They serve as a unifying societal force in a way the Premiership or Champions League, though probably at a higher level of technical excellence, come nowhere near to achieving. As an example of this power, anyone who watched the entire Scotland squad, plus coaching staff, and nearly 50,000 Scottish fans at Hampden on Thursday night giving ‘Flower of Scotland’ ‘laldy’ (as they say up north) would surely have been impressed by the passion, and the apolitical and benign expression of nationalism it exhibited. These pre-match rituals may seem small but they do matter – significantly more I’d argue than Nations League points.
It would be sad as well to see all the etiquette and traditions of sport – like curtseying to the royal box at Wimbledon, the exchange of pennants, or (at a lower level) singing three cheers for the opposition at the end of the game – completely disappear. They are, if nothing else, useful reminders that we are watching a game, and that there are more important things in life.
Some would say that at least Carsley is being honest, which is perhaps preferable to just going along with something he doesn’t really believe in and mumbling through the anthem, while staring uncomfortably at his boots, simply to avoid controversy. But if he really doesn’t care that much about the anthem, and thus the cultural and traditional aspects of his position, is he really the man for this particular job?
Carsley’s silence this evening, unless he changes his mind, will contrast with Gareth Southgate who belted out the anthem lustily. And possibly with Ireland’s Icelandic manager, Heimir Hallgrimsson, who mastered the Jamaican national anthem (‘Jamaica , Land We Love’) in his previous job. Hallgrimson is expected to gamely attempt ‘Amhran na bhFiann’ tonight.
On the other hand, if Carsley’s team make a similarly distinct contrast with the Southgate era by playing confidently and positively and winning in style, anthem-gate may be relegated to a side issue by some of the success starved England faithful. Though not perhaps, by everyone – a whopping 77 per cent of Daily Telegraph readers think players and managers should sing the anthem. These things evidently do still matter, to quite a lot of people.
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