aaamusic | On 08, Jul 2021

While now singing national anthems has become something of a generic tradition within the sport, it does give rise to the question as to why national anthems have become so important, and how did it actually start to be practiced within the sport? With every national sporting event, be it Football, American Football and so on, the national anthem is the first thing to be sung to commence with the sports ceremony. 

Within this article, we will address the exact reasons as to why we uphold such long traditions when it comes to national anthem singing, and how it began to be practiced. In the meantime, with the commencement of the national football event the Euro 2020, if you are looking to make some Euro 2020 betting runs for yourself, now would be the perfect time to do so.

It depends on the region sport is played

It depends on the region sport is played. It is very true that all sporting events such as the NFL, Euro 2020 and so on, practice singing the national anthem before each and every consecutive match in their own way. However European countries will actually only say the anthem just before an international game, whereas the US will always sing the national

anthem before any sport, no matter which one-they all practice this tradition. Your question may be why? And too right. We all remember the Super Bowl and how the national anthem plays a huge part in the extravaganza of the ceremonies, European teams do not nearly make as much fuss when it comes to their sport commencements.

From the English Premier League, to the La Liga of Spain, the national anthems are not required before a match is to commence. Even when the Champions League commences, the different clubs of separate nations do not listen to their national anthems before a match

commences. That is just the way it is and how it is ultimately played out. On the other hand, within the US that is such a completely different story, in fact, the national anthem is revered massively within the US. It is all about traditions being up kept, and boy has this been a lengthy tradition. Since the baseball games in the late 1800s, national anthems were sung by all, during the midst of the civil war during 1862.

However, the Star-Spangled anthem was not the national anthem for the US up until 1931, yet it was used at times within the major league of baseball to create further extensive morale and energy prior to the commencement of matches. It was within the first games of the series, a military band would come out and play the national anthem track, within the seventh stretch of the game. It got the crowd roused more than any other anthem, and this is how the Star-spangled event eventually stuck as a tradition within baseball major league.

After the next series of baseball in Boston, the Spangled anthem was used for the world

series, for pre-game festivities, and continued being played everywhere until it just stuck as a daily must for the institution of sports. It is very easy to read a crowd and their tolerance/want of something, the energy of the stadiums speaks massively, and so it did with this anthem in the end. 

It was after the end of the second world war, that the anthem was actually commission

as one to be played in each and every game, no questions asked. Starting as a remembrance for freedom and the lives that were given to achieve it, it was a tradition that was worthy to be made permanent. That is essentially how it very much started- and stayed. Canada also joined in with this tradition, due to their teams also playing within the American leagues, so it just caught on from there on.

While Europe is patriotic in its own way, the reason as to why one anthem is not played for each and every game within tournaments is that the teams are multi nation and it would not make sense to say one anthem and neglect the rest. For that reason, the American tradition did not catch on within Europe, and Manchester United, a Premier League team, would be a good example of why. Within Manchester United, 13 different countries are the nationalities of all the players there, making it pretty much impossible to please everyone and say 13 different anthems before each of their games, right? That is also not even considering the teams of the opposing sides too. US sports often have 95% home-grown players, hence why the tradition is far easier.

This does not mean that the USA has more honour for the wars to pass and Europe does not, it is just a case of getting down to the sports rather than giving up 30 minutes of playing time to sing anthems! When European teams play nationally, each nation will pause and sign their national anthem before commencing the game, and hey, that works just as good too!