It wouldn’t be a big British event if there wasn’t people kicking off, would it?
And annoyed FA Cup Final viewers were already making the same complaint before the match had even kicked off.
The two Manchester sides, City and United, are facing each other in the final for a consecutive year at Wembley.
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The football final kicked off at 3pm on BBC One, with the coverage starting off at 1:50pm. And of course, before the match began, the players gathered for the national anthem.
Prince William is also in attendance, seated in the royal box, and sang along after shaking hands with the teams on the pitch. And, as has seemed to become the norm with these bigger games, a singer then took to Wembley to lead the national anthem – MOBO winner Zara McFarlane.
However, fans weren’t particularly impressed with the players’ efforts to sing along and belt out ‘God save the King’.
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Users on X called it a ‘disaster’ as one slammed: “Ffs I’ve never heard the national anthem sung so poorly.”
Clearly placing importance on the song for the royal family, another wrote: “New rule: if you can’t sing the national anthem you can’t play for your country.”
Although, it’s worth pointing out that not all the Manchester City and Manchester United players are ‘playing for their country’, as they are not all from England.
Also unimpressed with the singing of the hymn, a fan said: “That was two absolute abysmal efforts of abide with me and our national anthem.”
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Others echoed: “Not much of a rendition of the national anthem. crikey.”
Plenty of fans are unhappy with the efforts, as they slammed: “Absolutely atrocious singing of ‘Abide with Me’ and the ‘National Anthem’ at the FA Cup Final!! It was embarrassing!”
Another even slammed the fans in the stands as they said: “Just watched them play the ‘national anthem’ of the UK at the FA Cup Final.
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“Some jibberish about God save the king or something. Anyways, not a soul in the 70,000+ stadium was singing it. England is cooked.”
As others said: “Maybe it’s just me, but preferred the National anthem at the cup final when the crowd sang it with the military band playing it. Singers, big flags, flames all not needed, let the fans create the atmosphere!”
Topics: Manchester City, Manchester United, Football, UK News, Sport