Sing up, Lads...

The singing of national anthems before international football matches is a formality which most of us barely bat an eyelid over. It is simply part of the procedure, a moment when the big match build up comes to a head as kick-off is almost palpable, but in itself generally unremarkable. Unremarkable that is, unless it all goes wrong. And in recent years, there have been a spate of anthem related gaffes of note, mostly due to human error on the part of the host nation towards their guests.

Anthem related gaffes took a new turn recently when in EA Sports' new football game, UEFA Euro 2008, the anthem assigned to Northern Ireland was not God Save the Queen, the song traditionally sung by players and fans from the province. Instead, the song which is played before Northern Ireland play in UEFA Euro 2008 is none other than Amhrán na bhFiann, the anthem of the Republic of Ireland. The virulently nationalist and rather bloodthirsty anthem of the Republic of Ireland. Given the history of the two countries, this is sure to be less than amusing to some people with more entrenched political views.

While on the topic, lets review some previous anthem gaffes of note.

1) Just to show that anthem gaffes of an acutely sensitive historical and political nature are not the preserve of EA Sports, step forward Swiss TV channel SRG. Before the Austria-Germany game in the recent European Championships, they subtitled the German anthem with the old lyrics which were used under the Nazi regime. Oh dear. Presumably, those responsible for the decision felt that the Austrians might roll over as they had in 1938 [Hilariously, SRG bosses we very specific in apportioning blame: two young female editors were responsible, according to the report].

2) In May, Lithuania played a friendly against the Czech Republic in Prague. Presumably working on the assumption that all the Baltic states are the same, the Czech hosts played the Latvian national anthem before the game, featured a picture of the Latvian squad and number of pictures of the Latvian flag in the match programme. Unlike their counterparts in Swiss TV, the spokesman for the Czech football federation and his deputy lost their posts.

3) Also in May 2008, Ghana visited Sydney for a friendly against Australia. Due to a mix-up before the game, the Ghanaian anthem was apparently 'lost.' After an awkward silence, the Australian anthem was played, and the players were encouraged to shake hands before beginning the game. Trying to atone for their previous gaffe, stadium staff, having apparently located the anthem again, played the Ghanaian song before the start of the second half, 'drawing a sarcastic applause from the crowd and drawing further attention to the blunder'[Courier Mail].

4) As recently as the 9th of June this year the Syrian national anthem was mistakenly played instead of the Lebanese one during an international game in Saudi Arabia. Again, not a good mistake to make given the political sensitivity of the region and the question of Syrian influence in Lebanon. According to the BBC report, several Lebanese players were 'visibly angry' having heard the Syrian anthem. It's one way of motivating players for these games...

5) The final anthem gaffe comes from the England-Croatia European Championship qualifier held at Wembley in November 2007. The Croatian national anthem was sung by Englishman Tony Henry, who mispronounced one section of the song, rendering a line which should have been 'you know my dear how we love your mountains' as 'my dear, my penis is a mountain.' Rather than cause any anger, a number of accounts claim that the mistake helped the Croats, insofar as it relaxed them before the game. It goes without saying that match reports eulogised Croatia's penetration on the night, the fact that they did not flop given all the hype, and looked very comfortable in the box. Probably.