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Tartan Army shame Scotland by booing anthem

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The Tartan Army brought shame on Scotland by booing throughout the English anthem before tonight’s international at Celtic Park.

Football’s governing bodies take a dim view of such actions with the SFA heavily involved in various anti-racism campaigns aimed at educating supporters in tolerance.

That was marked absent when Wayne Rooney led his team-mates out for the match with the anthem barely audible as the vast majority of the home fans booed and jeered the playing of God Save The Queen which ironically is the British national anthem that Scots such as Chris Hoy and Andy Murray have stood to attention for at Olympic Games.

Former England youth striker Chris Martin started the match for Gordon Strachan’s side.

While emotions run high after the referendum surely the clearest sign of maturity would have been to have shown indifference to the 40 seconds of the English anthem that was played? For those that voted yes their argument is with their fellow Scots rather than the anthem of the England football team.

The Scotland v England fixture is the oldest in international football and was played on an annual basis until 1989 as the international calendar became more demanding.

Since then the countries have met at the 1996 European Championships at Wembley, in a play-off for a place at Euro 2000 as well as last season at Wembley in a friendly.

It remains to be seen if the SFA condemn the fans that booed and jeered through the anthem. Tonight’s match is the biggest money spinner that the SFA have known in years with the majority of tickets costing £50 plus.

The SFA have been keen to revive the fixture but it was only the 150th anniversary of the FA that brought the game back last season with all parties relieved that it passed off trouble free.

Police Scotland staged a major exercise for tonight’s match with no reports of any trouble in Glasgow before the match.

At Wembley earlier last year before their friendly with Ireland the FA appealed for both sets of supporters to be respectful of each other’s anthems with that advise generally heeded.

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