Roy Hodgson asks English fans to avoid singing offensive songs in Ireland friendly

England manager Roy Hodgson has urged fans not to sing antagonistic or offensive songs during their friendly match against Republic of Ireland on the 29th May.

It will be the first meeting since a game at Lansdowne Road was abandoned in 1995 because of crowd trouble.

Hodgson, in an email to England ticket holders and in his programme notes, asked fans to avoid songs with political or religious overtones.

The email read: “Ahead of the Ireland fixture, on behalf of the FA, I would like to ask our supporters to please respect our opponents and welcome them in the right way.

“Wembley is considered the world over as the home of football and we ask those attending to not take part in any chanting – particularly of a religious or political perspective – which could cause offence to our visitors or fellow fans.”

Football’s world governing body did remind the FA of article three of FIFA’s statutes which reads: “Discrimination of any kind against a country, private person or group of people on account of ethnic origin, gender, language, religion, politics or any other reason is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion.”

FIFA also told the FA to take “preventative measures” in the future which is why the FA is trying to doing as much as possible to avoid any insulting songs from their side’s fans against the Republic.

Source: BBC sport