Thomas Tuchel demands World Cup rule change after national anthem ‘ruined’ | Football | Sport

Thomas Tuchel has voiced his annoyance after being unable to watch his England players sing God Save the King due to a mass of photographers blocking his view. Under official World Cup rules, photographers must remain behind the LED advertising hoardings and are restricted to designated zones behind the goal or next to the team benches. However, they are permitted to line the touchline during the anthems to capture images of both sides before kick-off.

Tuchel was far from pleased after having his view obstructed, saying: “I have to tell you something, I’m begging FIFA to change the position of the photographers in the national anthem. I could not see my team during the national anthem and I was waiting for this moment, it was a very, very special moment today. I was standing in front of a wall of 50 photographers, half a metre away and I could not see a single player.

“It ruined a little bit of my experience today, it is very emotional. When I was young, even when I started coaching this was too big to dream of, to have this kind of a career.”

Ahead of taking on Croatia, Tuchel made it plain that he would not be singing the anthem himself.

“Not yet,” he declared at the team’s camp in Kansas City. “I think we are not there yet. At the very end [of the tournament], maybe. I am still a bit shy. I don’t want to offend people and don’t want to have the focus on that now.”

He was then asked whether he’d learned the words, to which he replied: “It’s not so difficult.”

When pushed on whether he was an ‘Anglophile”, he added: “Yeah, it feels like that. I can’t explain it but it felt like this from the first weeks at Chelsea.

“It just felt so good to be in the country and in the city of course, and be a part of the Premier League.

“Every day was a gift, almost. It just felt like to be in the right place. I cannot say often enough, I’m grateful, and it’s an honour for me to be England head coach and nobody wants it more than me.

“I feel basically at home when I land, when I fly home [to England]. I would say now “I fly home”, I fly home to my home in London and it feels like home when I land in London and I’m in England.”