NORTHERN IRELAND FOOTBALL chiefs and supporters have so far kept quiet on one former internatonal’s plea to drop national anthem God Save The Queen.
Former Windsor Park favourite Paul McVeigh urged the IFA to, as he sees it, encourage Catholics to play for the North by scrapping the use of the ‘English anthem’.
A spate of players born north of the border have declared for the Republic in recent years with the list including Manchester United’s Darron Gibson, Shane Duffy, Dan Kearns, and James McClean.
In a interview with the Belfast Telegraph, McVeigh insists that a new anthem and a move away from Linfield’s Windsor Park, is needed to improve the situation in the future.
“Northern Ireland, as long as it continues with that anthem, will not have an identity of its own and players will continue to turn to the Republic,” he is quoted as saying.
The IFA declined to comment when contacted today by TheScore while a spokesman for the Amalgamation of Official Northern Ireland Supporters’ Clubs says that the fans’ group have decided not to comment also.
