“Given that England and Northern Ireland have the same national anthem, do any other national sides share one?” tweets Dylan Mitchell. “And have they played each other?”
Before we go on to actually answering the question, first, let’s remember that while the lyrics might be different, Liechtenstein have snaffled the melody from “God Save the Queen” for their “Oben am Jungen Rhein” anthem. England last met Liechtenstein during qualifying for Euro 2004, when Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney popped up with the goals in a 2-0 win. The first line of the text roughly translates as “on the upper reaches of the young Rhine, Liechtenstein leans against the Alpine heights,” according to Andy Shackleton, who has himself a GCSE in German. It’s pretty special. Andrew Cosgrove points out that New Zealand’s official national anthem is also God Save the Queen.
“It’s a catchy, bombastic, easy-to-follow, unadventurous tune, with a flexible and innately ‘vocal’ structure, and these factors have made it consistently ideal for anthemic purposes,” says Garrick Alder. Anyway, yes, Greece and Cyprus do share the same anthem and last played each other in May 2008. “They have been drawn in the same qualifying group for the World Cup so will be meeting this October,” chirps up Yiannis Meleagros.
The Guardian produced an article on the reasons for this, which commenters put forward a number of theories for the similarity, but according to the BBC, “the tune became so associated with nationalism it was soon used by other countries for their anthems too, just with different words.”
Liechtenstein have played European Championship qualifiers against Northern Ireland in 1996 and 2008, reveals Peter Cole. He’s disappointed at the lack of evidence he’s found of them on the world wide web, though. “Liechtenstein must have been a little mystified on a visit to Hampden Park in September 2010, when their anthem was booed by Scottish fans, leading to an apology being made by the acting chief executive of the Scottish FA George Peat,” says Peter.
The final word then goes to Michael. “And last but not least I want to mention Switzerland,” he writes, “whose national anthem until 1961 was also sung to the tune of “God Save the Queen” (“Rufst du, mein Vaterland”). The last time England and Switzerland met while the anthem was in use was during the 1954 World Cup in Bern on 20 June.”
“Finland and Estonia too share the same anthem (although with different lyrics),” shouts Ville Leino. “They have played each other many times. The last of these matches was about a year ago when we shamefully lost to Estonia 2-0 on a friendly.” Ats Purje scored twice. Ouch.
Moving on, quite literally, to a different continent where Ben Raza says Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, which translates as God Bless Africa, is a big hit. “It has been used as the national anthem of various African countries over the years. Nowadays it’s the national anthem of Tanzania, while Zambia uses the tune, and South Africa use the word,” he trills. “Assuming you count them all as the same song then we’ve got Tanzania and Zambia who have played 30 matches since 1967.”
Dave Stewart does not believe he’s the only expat in Hong Kong to get in touch and tell us that the SAR and Macau share the same anthem as the Chinese mainland itself. He’s wrong, though, because he was the only one to get in touch. “Hong Kong were drawn with China this past season during the World Cup qualifying campaign, so have played each other twice competitively in the last 12 months,” says Dave. “The anthem made the games all the more interesting as a number of people in Hong Kong are not particularly thrilled at having the mainland anthem as their own and have taken to booing it at national team games. I watched the games on television but the TV station were told to cut to adverts when the anthems were played as they didn’t want people to witness the booing. As you can see from the video some who were told not to be audibly booing brought visual boos with them. That impeccable organisation, Fifa, then fined the HKFA for their supporters’ actions.” What about the football itself I hear you cry? “Well, Hong Kong parked the bus in both games to grind out two 0-0 draws. Both were very creditable results but not enough to finish ahead of China, who finished as runners up to Qatar.”
Politicians at the football
“A friend told me in 2004 that at the beginning of Euro 2004 the then-US president George W Bush asked why America is not not playing in the Euros,” claims Ammar Al-waeel. “Can anybody confirm if he did say that, and does anybody have similar foolish/funny quotes from leaders or politicians about football, including David Cameron and his support for West Ham. Or is it Aston Villa?”
Despite its extensive archive of urban legends about Bush, Snopes has no mention of this one. However on a similar note, Desillusion (disillusion, is that you?) emails: “France’s president back then, Jacques Chirac, not knowing most of the players’ names but trying anyway.”
Improving managers
“Phil Parkinson recently departed Bradford City after five seasons in which each year the team finished higher in the league pyramid than the previous year,” emails Dave Hirst. “A proud achievement indeed, but I’d be surprised if this was a record. However, it got me wondering, who holds the record for the most consecutive improvements with the same club?”
“Graham Taylor can go one better than Phil Parkinson, registering six
seasons of continuous improvement at Watford,” writes Stuart Sale. “He took the club from the old 4th division in 77-78, eventually reaching 2nd in the old 1st
Division in 82-83. At this point there were only two possibilities, win
the league or break the run. Sadly fate chose the latter and Watford
finished 11th in 83-84.
“I know the question is about managers,” writes Glenn McConnell, but we’ll hear him out nonetheless, “but credit has to go to Nathan Pond who signed for Fleetwood Town in 2003 and is the current club captain. He played in the 12 most recent of the club’s 13 seasons improving on the previous campaign’s finish (dating back to when the name Fleetwood Town was adopted), featuring under 4 managers, amassing 5 promotions and becoming a Guinness World Record holder for playing in the most different divisions with the same club in the process.” Fleetwood finished 19th in League One this season but with any luck their joy at avoiding relegation will provide some comfort for Nathan as his run came to an end.
Finally Ben Wright has a contender yet to experience the joy of six but who, barring an unexpected departure, is certain to join the elite club next season. “At my local club, Maidstone United Jay Saunders is about to start his 6th consecutive season. In March of the 10/11 season club captain Saunders was appointed Caretaker Manager with the stones rock bottom of the Ryman Premier, 8 points adrift of safety. Despite winning 5 of the remaining 9 games, Maidstone were relegated, though Saunders was then made the Permanent Manager. Since then, this is his full record:
11/12 - 6th, Ryman Division 1 South
12/13 - 2nd, Ryman Division 1 South, Promoted via Play Offs
13/14 - 7th, Ryman Premier
14/15 - 1st, Ryman Premier, Promoted as Champions
15/16 - 3rd, National League (Conference) South, Promoted via Play Offs
Though this only reads as another 5 season record, Saunders has recently renewed his contract, and since Maidstone are in a higher division (National League) than last season (National League South) it is impossible for them to finish lower than last season, meaning that it will extend at the very least to a 6 season run.” He’ll be hoping you haven’t jinxed him there, Ben.
Knowledge archive
“Why is it that in British usage, apparently, a hat-trick refers to three goals scored by one player in one match, whereas in German usage, ‘ein Hattrick’ refers to three goals scored by one player in one half of a match, with nobody else (friend or foe) scoring in between?” asked a puzzled Peter Niesen way, way back in 2003.
“In the days when footballers got the bus to the match with fans (after working the morning shift), the hat trick (or passing round of a hat to collect money) was a way of rewarding a player for his on field pursuits,” says Dominic Gould.
“So the answer is quite simple - the British are either more generous or more easily pleased than their German counterparts. Or perhaps both.”
Either that or the Germans insist on higher standards. Which is something we used to do in Britain and then some: in the olden days, a “proper” hat-trick was the same as the German model BUT the player had to score with both left and right foot, and his head.
So now you know.
Can you help?
“This has puzzled me for longer than is healthy, but where does the term ‘dead rubber’ originate from?” asks Peter Egan. “I’ve heard some say it originates from chess, but there’s nothing conclusive.”
“With the appointment of Stuart McCall for his second spell at The Bantams he now has the record of being the permanent manager (Rangers was a caretaker role) of two clubs Motherwell and Bradford who both play in the same colours. You can see from his welcome photos they could have been taken at the same time, but for the stands behind. This clearly isn’t a record but has any manager, or player for that matter, only managed/played for teams with the same colours?” – James Mackenzie.
“Has the winning team in football ever had a trophy taken off them and ordered to replay a final because of a refereeing error? It’s happening here in Ireland where Meath, the winners of the Christy Ring Cup (All Ireland “B” hurling title) won the final, were presented with the trophy and had a homecoming before the GAA ruled three days later that the referee had added the score up incorrectly!” – Brendan Keogh.
“I was wondering, as England were on ITV for their game against Slovakia, which of the various broadcasters has the best record. Do England have a better chance of winning a major championships with one TV channel over another?” – Stephen Turner.
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