England told to scrap God Save The King immediately and replace anthem with iconic song

The national anthem has long caused debate. Is it stirring enough? Should it be replaced? Should you really change such a tradition? 'God Save The King' (GSTK) has long been sung by the English national football team but England does not actually have an agreed national anthem. As a result, in rugby, England used to sing 'Land of Hope and Glory' while the English cricket team are famous for using 'Jerusalem' at home Test matches.

The football team, though, has always used 'God Save The King' - or previously, 'God Save The Queen'. Like England, Scotland - also at this World Cup - do not have an official anthem and use Flower Of Scotland after having previously played Scotland The Brave until the 1990s. The Tartan Army's rendition of Flower Of Scotland was widely praised when the Scots beat Haiti 1-0 in their first World Cup match for 1998 last week. That helped spark fresh debate in England over whether a more rousing song is required for England. We put that question to our Express Sport readers. And here's how you voted...

Our poll returned over 4,000 results, and 1,902 people voted that England should NOT scrap the use of 'God Save The King'. That amounted to 45 per cent of voters who would prefer to stick with the traditional pre-match song. Yet 55 per cent of voters disagree - and DO want the anthem scrapped.

Of those who want to swap out GSTK, 15 per cent voted in favour of 'I Vow To Thee My Country' as its replacement. Another 40 per cent of those seeking a change went for William Blake's and Hubert Parry's 'Jerusalem'.

Whereas the other 44 per cent of voters in favour of change want GSTK replaced by Edward Elgar's 'Land Of Hope And Glory', which was written back in 1901 and was used at the Commonwealth Games until 2010, when it was replaced by 'Jerusalem'.

Despite Jerusalem's popularity, many English people feel that 'Land Of Hope And Glory' best represents the country and would provide a more stirring and patriotic anthem than one about the Royal Family.

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