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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Jonathan Liew

Football fans, the national anthem and a battle for who controls the public space

“We’ve fought wars,” pleads Peter Shilton, his voice breaking with emotion. “People have died to protect our national anthem. Every country has its national anthem, and they’re very proud of it. And, you know, we’re one of the top ones. It’s sad that a small minority feel they have to do this.”

Alas, I was abroad over the weekend and thus missed out on most of the piping hot coronation discourse that many of you will have enjoyed. As it happened I was in Germany: in many ways the royal family’s spiritual home, even if – in Shilton’s reading of history – it did launch an unsuccessful attempt to invade the national anthem in 1939.

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