NORTHERN IRELAND FOOTBALL chiefs and supporters have so far kept quiet on one former internatonal’s plea to drop national anthem God Save The Queen.
Former Windsor Park favourite Paul McVeigh urged the IFA to, as he sees it, encourage Catholics to play for the North by scrapping the use of the ‘English anthem’.
A spate of players born north of the border have declared for the Republic in recent years with the list including Manchester United’s Darron Gibson, Shane Duffy, Dan Kearns, and James McClean.
In a interview with the Belfast Telegraph, McVeigh insists that a new anthem and a move away from Linfield’s Windsor Park, is needed to improve the situation in the future.
“Northern Ireland, as long as it continues with that anthem, will not have an identity of its own and players will continue to turn to the Republic,” he is quoted as saying.
The IFA declined to comment when contacted today by TheScore while a spokesman for the Amalgamation of Official Northern Ireland Supporters’ Clubs says that the fans’ group have decided not to comment also.
Ok I’ll be the first to say it. Just move the home games to Wembley. That way most of the home fans have less distance to travel anyway.
@Darren McGuire: I doubt you are the first to say something like that
@Darren McGuire: funny cos it’s true
@Alana: funny cause its not…
@Teddyzigzagbigbag: they should move their home games to the Aviva
It’s a good move. United are the best supported club in England. Their average attendance is over 74k which is pretty much capacity. Spurs are second which is to be expected when they are in wembley and then suprisingly comes Arsenal and west ham. Liverpool are below city with an average of 53k per match which is over 20k per game shy of United. That 20k difference is the same as Swansea or watfords average attendance for this season.
@Jim Demps: man knows his attendances!!
@Jim Demps: what’s surprising about Arsenal and West Ham coming 3rd and 4th, they have the 3rd and 4th largest stadiums. Man City and Liverpool don’t have the capacity to be higher on the list.
@John Buckley: Jim is just quoted the largest stadiums in order and appears to be suprised that they also have the highest attendances
@Jim Demps: god you are smart
@Gareth Keenan: maybe you should read both comments again. He is going by attendance order only, Wembley is bigger than Old Trafford. I asked what was surprising because it is no surprise to most people. Your comment added absolutely nothing to this thread.
@John Buckley: I guess the surprise on my part was that of West Ham being so far up the list. I know they have a large stadium and a good fan base but I didn’t think they were getting that high of an average attendance. If I’d have had to guess before I looked it up I would have put them down around 6-7th with Liverpool.
Looks like all the commenters on this thread are either football stadia enthusiasts or dusted off the old encyclopedias… Haha, great stuff lads.
88000 wouldn’t be the biggest in Europe.
@Slim Jim: I imagine the story is misconstruing the point. An 88k capacity would almost certainly see United have the highest average attendance in Europe (Dortmund’s is 79k and Barcelona 77k).
Wouldn’t be the first time united have used city’s ground as home. City allowed united to use Maine road after WW2. Ethiad is much more of a city centre stadium being only 20 mins from Piccadilly. Also, city don’t actually own the ethiad, they just pay an annual rent to Manchester City council (similar to shamrock rovers) so I could see this happening.
@Dublin Gooner: city own there own stadium they bought it years ago and Old Trafford is as close to Piccadilly as city’s ground is
@Colm Connolly: city do not own the stadium. They have a 99 year lease or some such deal from manchester city council.
Another way to extract cash for their tourist fans by extending
the library, well its as quiet as a library on match days anyway….
@Forfar So Good: Oh so when you called it a library, you didn’t mean it was an actual library, where you can go to acquire books on a temporary basis for free. That’s where my confusion came from. You were in fact talking about the fact that traditionally libraries are quiet, and were humourously comparing the stadium to that, by inferring that it is also quiet. I get it.
@Jack Jones: the away fans are normally the quietest in OT
@Forfar So Good: How droll. Show me any stadium in England which has outstanding atmosphere in every game. Before Anfield is mentioned, like any other team that only happens on the biggest occasions. English stadiums are simply not as loud now. The average attendees are older now.
They don’t think much of themselves do they
A new manager should be priority, before United slip away into an abyss of mediocrity.
@Daniel Donovan: The abyss of being ahead of every team in England bar Man City.
It would just be a bigger library
As United fan I’d think we would have more things pressing issues to be concerned about. I mean which is more important right now; getting back to being a strong team or saying we used to win things, but look at the size of the stadium?
@Andrew Keane: it’s not going to happen for another 2 to 3 years and word is over here they would use boltons stadium.
@Andrew Keane: Proper planning means looking beyond 2-3 years. Besides United are clearly improved in the league this season and are clearly going to be among the challengers next season.
@Gary Dunne: LOL! Next year is our year. Where did i hear that before?
@Paul Friday Shannon: what’s the capacity of Bolton’s stadium. If you’re talking 30,000 or less you may as well say Oldham or Bury which are probably considered part of Greater Manchester now.