Roy Hodgson wants England crowd to sing French anthem

Watford: England`s soccer manager Roy Hodgson said that he wants his team`s supporters to join in with French fans in singing their national anthem, La Marseillaise, before Tuesday`s friendly international at Wembley Stadium.

Following the attacks in Paris on Friday (November 13) which left over 120 people dead, the English Football Association are looking to encourage England fans to show solidarity with the French by singing La Marseillaise.

Hodgson, speaking in French, a language he used when coaching Switzerland`s soccer team for three years in the 1990s, said that displaying the lyrics to the crowd would help them to sing along, although he somewhat doubted that many in the crowd would know the language as he does.

"I hope we will display the Marseillaise (French national anthem) lyrics and we will encourage the crowd to sing with the French team, that`s the only thing we could do but it`s not really possible to expect the 80,000 people in the stadium to speak French like me after my career in Switzerland," said Hodgson at a news conference in Watford, near London on Monday