Rather than playing ‘Advance Australia Fair’ the event organisers cocked up and instead subjected the Australian team to the first verse of ‘God Defend New Zealand’.
The players were less than impressed and the commentators quickly noted the gaffe, but it wasn’t until the first Maori verse was almost over that the organisers caught the mistake and apologised.
“Our apologies on behalf of this organisation, this was the New Zealand anthem,” the announcer said.
The organizers played the correct anthem after, but it seemed the damage was already done as Australia lost 3-1 against Belgium.
National anthem mix-ups don’t get much worse than this. Oh wait, yeah they do.
Image: Getty
