England players visit Auschwitz...

[Gullscorer]

...before they play their first match in Euro 2012! Presumably arranged by FA Chairman David Bernstein. The horrors of the Holocaust are well known. A lesson from history nobody should ever forget, although, unfortunately nobody ever seems to learn the lessons of history. But, even so, this is a remarkably stupid move by the FA. Nothing is more guaranteed to put players off football and to take their minds off winning their games. Take them to see Auschwitz after the tournament by all means, but before they begin the competition is ridiculous. Auschwitz and Euro 2012 just do not mix. Excepting a miracle, there's no way now that England will win Euro 2012.
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[ferrarilover]

Getting the excuses in early, I see. If this lot aren't affected by beating off supermodels with a shitty stick and hoofing around, pissed, in their million pound hyper cars, then a trip which few of them will comprehend to a place they won't fully understand, a week before a ball is kicked is NOT going to affect the performance one iota. This is like the Daily Mail blaming the current Spanish banking crisis on Diana's untimely death...

Matt.

[Gullscorer]

Some footballers are not as daft as they look. And it only needs one or two of them to be put off their game. But you could well be right, and this will not affect their performance at all at all. We're doomed anyway. We'll never make it into the next round..

[Gulliball]

7 of them went, including the manager, as a PR excercise. The vast majority of the playing squad didn't go.

Even so, had all 23 players spent a week camping there it wouldn't make any difference to our performance tomorrow.

[Gullscorer]

7 of them went, including the manager, as a PR excercise. The vast majority of the playing squad didn't go.

Even so, had all 23 players spent a week camping there it wouldn't make any difference to our performance tomorrow.

[Gulliball]

Visiting Auschwitz can join not having 'passion', not singing the national anthem and numerous other ridiculous lines that get trotted out every major tournament.

Look at the quality of the other national squads, then looks at ours. That's the reason why we'll lose in the group stage or quarters, and Spain/Holland/Germany will reach the semis/finals. It's a very simple formula - produce the best players = win tournaments. Taking Iniesta to Auschwitz won't turn him into Jordan Henderson, if it could we might still stand a chance...

[Kernowgull]

But where do these excuses come from? The media needing something to talk about 24/7.

I can guarantee Hodgson won't offer any excuses, if England aren't good enough he will say as much. The problem is the press will vilify him as if it is his fault. There is no way this squad is as good as others in the tournament. Everyone can see that, so therefore why the he'll are there going to be torn apart if they don't succeed?

[Southampton Gull]

Visiting Auschwitz can join not having 'passion', not singing the national anthem and numerous other ridiculous lines that get trotted out every major tournament.

Look at the quality of the other national squads, then looks at ours. That's the reason why we'll lose in the group stage or quarters, and Spain/Holland/Germany will reach the semis/finals. It's a very simple formula - produce the best players = win tournaments. Taking Iniesta to Auschwitz won't turn him into Jordan Henderson, if it could we might still stand a chance...

That really pisses me off for some reason. Whenever I see it happening I'd rather see the player(s) dropped until they sing it with some pride. The egg-chasers show more pride in the shirt than football players ever do.

[Gulliball]

I remember we had this exact same discussion 2 years ago for the World Cup.

I won on account of the Spanish National Anthem not having any words (therefore impossible for their players to sing along) but they have won the last two major tournaments with ease.

It annoys me, probably in the same way it annoys you, that people constantly harp on about the national anthem. If you're a quiet, shy or whatever else player and don't want to sing along when a camera is shoved 30cm from your face, fine. What matters is what the players do on the pitch, and at the moment we don't have enough players that are good enough to take on the top teams. The media hyping up passion and braveheart stuff shouldn't distract from the fact we don't produce enough technically good enough footballers.

In an ideal world we would have 11 players who play like Steven Gerrard, sing the national anthem with vigour and in their spare time appear on countdown. As it is we have about 9 hugely dislikable and illiterate players from a possible 11, of who a few sing along and the other two would be in prison if they weren't footballers. But they're the best we have, so they're what we have to go with.

[Southampton Gull]

I don't care about Spain, I only care about England. We have a national anthem with lyrics and I want to see players belt it out just like rugby players do. Show some pride or piss off back home is how I see it

[Colorado Gull]

I have the exact same view Dave (SG). It really does my head in when players don't sing the national anthem, it's as if they don't care that they are playing for their country!

This is how they should sing it!

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[Trojan 67]

FA Chairman David Bernstein.




Is that a Jewish name ?







Ouch ! It fits !




Remember the dead, for as recently as the 90's genocide happened again in Europe, only in what was the former Yugoslavia, it wasn't Jewish folk who were murdered.



Proud to be English

[Gulliball]

Why?

A team could sing the national anthem with perfect pitch and lose 5-0, or stand in silence and win 5-0. The ability (or willingness) to sing the national anthem and abiality to win on the football pitch are completely different skill sets.

Yes, we'd all love a team to sing the national anthem like the rugby lads (and not fall to the floor in the same way), but given the choice between singing and football, I'd choose football.

Spain prove beyond all doubt that it is possible to stand and listen to a piece of music, then play amazing football. I'd rather we concentrate on the latter, otherwise concentrate on Eurovision. SInging is just one of the stupid things we concentrate on and ignore the important things - like being able to control and pass a football.

[Southampton Gull]

Chris, I'm not saying that singing the national anthem will improve results, I want to see players showing pride in representing their country. I'd rather see youngsters playing with pride than muppets like Rooney glaring at the cameras before a game.

[Gulliball]

If you'd rather have Carroll/Wickham/Whoever, that's your choice.

But to win a major tournament you need a Rooney, or about 8 of them.

We can produce reasonable singers, we've had trouble with the footballers in recent years.