What We're Reading
Welsh players tight-lipped during 'God Save The Queen'
- Daily Mail, Friday, July 27, 2012 2:57 AM
Great Britain is fielding a men's soccer team in the Olympic Games for the first time in half a century and controversy arose after its Welsh players -- Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy, Joe
Allen and Neil Taylor -- did not sing the national anthem, "God Save The Queen," before their first game, a 1-1 tie with Senegal.
"I have no policy on any player
singing an anthem," said Coach Stuart Pearce. "That's totally independent for them. Some enjoy singing it, some don't, we have no policy on it." Asked if that included his team
captain (Giggs) he added, "That's fine. No problem."
The two Scotland players in the women's Great Britain squad, striker Kim Little and defender Ifeoma
Dieke, also refused to join in with "God Save The Queen" before Wednesday's 1-0 win against New Zealand.
(FIFA allows England, Scotland, Wales and Nothern Ireland to field separate
nationals teams in World Cup and European Championship play, but the UK united for the Olympics, because, as the New York Times' Jere Longman put it, "Failure to
field a soccer team at the London Games would be as embarrassing as Canada’s entering the Winter Games without a hockey team.)
