From Daley Thompson’s whistles to a tight-lipped Gary Neville – other national anthem controversies

Lee Carsley is not the first sportsperson to be caught in the eye of a storm as regards not singing at ceremonies

England interim manager Lee Carsley has suggested he will not sing God Save the King on Saturday night in Dublin for his first match in the job. But this is not the first controversy with national anthems in sport.
At the 2023 World Cup, the US women’s football team sparked a row after some players elected not to sing the national anthem during group matches. The silence was thought to be a protest against racial discrimination and police violence in America – but still provoked a fierce backlash from commentators. They were eliminated in the first knockout round of the tournament.
After winning gold in the decathlon at the 1984 Olympics, Daley Thompson whistled his way through God Save the Queen. The front page of one tabloid simply read: Chump. “It wasn’t meant to be harmful to anybody. For me, it was joyous,” said Thompson in the recent BBC documentary on his career. “People wanted to make other stuff out of it. And to be honest, I didn’t really care.”
Iran declined to sing their national anthem before their 2022 World Cup match against England to support anti-government protests in their home country. There were jeers during the anthem and banners were seen reading “Woman, Life, Freedom”. Protests were held before the tournament after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly breaking the strict rules around head coverings.
Iranian National Football(soccer) team wears all black to cover their country’s colors in protest of the death of Mahsa Amini. pic.twitter.com/eicXK2pcJU
In August 2016, while playing for the San Francisco 49ers, quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during pre-game national anthems to protest about racial injustice and police brutality. His protest drew criticism from then US President Donald Trump. Kaepernick has been a free agent for the last seven years.
Organisers were left red-faced when they underestimated how important the national anthems were. They originally had schoolchildren from diverse backgrounds sing the anthems before kick-off but it led to criticism, with fans finding it “disturbing” and out of sync. They were re-recorded mid-tournament.
Gary Neville did the same as Carsley and remained focused on the game in hand rather than sing the anthem at his first major tournament in 1996. One Football Association chief told him “we’d rather appreciate it if you joined in”. Wayne Rooney singing loudly at the end of his career was different to when he started. Sven-Goran Eriksson sang God Save the Queen when he was manager but Fabio Capello chose not to.
It was highlighted that Sam Warburton did not always sing the words to the anthem when he was Wales rugby captain, but he explained to Telegraph Sport in 2015: “In my mind, I am singing the words. And it’s during this time that I think about my parents, my brother [Ben] and sister [Holly], my girlfriend [Rachel – who is now his wife], and about how I dreamt about playing for Wales when I was at school.”