England boss Thomas Tuchel’s reason for not singing national anthem before first game

Thomas Tuchel has been scrutinised over his claim that he will not sing the national anthem ahead of his first England match against Albania on Friday night – with the German insisting he must “earn the right”

England boss Thomas Tuchel did not sing the national anthem before his first game in charge against Albania on Friday night. The German said he would not join in with the rendition of God Save The King at Wembley because he had to “earn the right” to sing it.

The former Chelsea boss has been asked about whether he will sing the anthem on a number of occasions after becoming the third non-English manager to coach the Three Lions after Sven Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello.

Tuchel has previously claimed that he could join in with the anthem in the future after he has settled into the role and insisted at his latest press conference that he needed to bed into the group to become a “proper English guy” first.

“I think, first of all, you have a very powerful, emotional and meaningful national anthem and I could not be more proud to be on the sidelines and be in charge of the English national team,” he said.

“It means everything. It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel because it is that meaningful and it is that emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it. I feel that it is not just a given. You cannot just sing it. That’s why I decided that I will not sing it in my first matches.

“I will earn it with results, with building a group, with doing my job properly and by creating a feeling where maybe even you guys say at some point, ‘Now it’s time that you sing it, it feels like you properly earned it and you’re a proper English guy now’.”

Lee Carsley came under fire for refusing to sing the anthem during his brief stint as interim boss of the team following Gareth Southgate’s resignation. Carsley was born in England but played for the Republic of Ireland during his football career.

He explained that he never sung anthems as a player because he was “wary of his mind wandering off” and was instead focused on the first actions of the game, saying that mindset had continued as a coach.

Meanwhile, Tuchel has also been criticised over the amount of games he has attended at stadiums, while also living in Germany and commuting over to England for the purposes of his job.

Tuchel defended himself by saying he has attended more games than people think – and that he is able to watch less games if he watches a game in person.

“I was at 25 matches in the last nine weeks,” Tuchel said. “Maybe I could have gone to 28, but… on the Premier League weekends where I don’t go, I watch a minimum of five matches live on a wide-angle screen.

“Listen, I need a little bit of trust from you that you trust me to do the job on a high intensity and in the best way possible. There is no secret behind it that I travel from time to time to see my children in Munich. And that’s basically it.

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