...her fascist regime?

No, the comments section did not suddenly go hostile, but on this, the day of the US Independence, let me remind that the The Irish, too, had their freedom and independence movements. For many years, the brits (or really the English) ruled the Irish. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, while Eire (The republic of Ireland) is its own independent country. Let's just say there's bit of history and bad blood on both sides in this case. Thus the Irish and Northern Irish people are very sensitive as to what national anthem are played. I don't think the US would be too fond of having 'oh canada' played ??

Ireland's Call would have been a decent compromise.

You mean the Irish gamers were sober long enough to notice the song difference?

Isn't it great that we live in the next gen era where mistakes like this can be solved with patches?

Yeah but it's EA, the devs probably started the project in crunch time & the time it took to do more than one google search for "ireland+anthem" would have caused a delay.

Maybe they need to make "Deeply Offensive Stereotype Football" to show just how bad things can get. I can imagine the australian team uniform being singlet, shorts, thongs & hat with corks, the american could be the traditional redneck, the germans could be dressed as nazis (the goalie can even heil the ball away rather than catch it), the brits could have pinstripe suits, bowler hats, umbrellas & a cup of tea, the irish could be a colourful mishmash of whatever you throw on when drunk, the mexicans could be dressed as a mariachi band & need a nap every few minutes, norwegians could be vikings, new zealanders could be constantly shagging sheep... The possibilities are endless & either deeply offensive or hilarious depending on your sense of humour.

What it boils down to is that the when it comes to sport - any sport, and rightly or wrongly, the 'proper' national anthem is viewed by the three 'annexed' Celtic tribes as a song for the english.

Is that right, Northern Ireland's anthem is GStQ - that...sucks.

I can tell you right now, if that [God save the queen] was ever played in error at a football/soccer match as the scottish anthem, there would be a fucking riot.

Anyways, we're not talking real life, so no harm done eh? :)

...so stirring that pot up the political pot again, why does a country that is added on at the end [ie the UK of GB & NI] get God save the queen When Scotland and Wales both get their own? :) Every national sporting event I've ever been to it's been the scottish anthem [Well I am one of Jacks whisky sipping sociopaths after all]

@ravenhawk - Yes it is the British national anthem, but with the exception of the olympics, there really is no such thing as 'Team Britain' in sport. I think it boils down to each country not wanting to share a]their victory and b]the other countries defeats. Like the previous poster said, Great Britain is the name of the land mass - not the country, or the peoples therein - of which there are actually three [recognised] I think :) ..I'm sure the Cornish would declare their own sovereignty in a minute if they had the infrastructure...

errmm.. but it lets get back to games eh?

Thanks for clearing those things up for me, Anon and others.

And I apologize for my posts.. err... naming errors. I shouldn't try to make posts at 5 am.