MARGARET THATCHER’S Government feared that allowing the Scottish football team to use Scotland the Brave as their anthem would spark nationalist sympathies.
Ministers at the time believed that letting Scotland's 1982 side drop the UK national anthem would be "indicative of a national breakaway movement" and aid calls for independence.
Documents released by the National Archives of Scotland show that the then Scottish sports minister, Alex Fletcher, wrote to the Department of the Environment to air his dismay over the move.
"When a team from the UK play abroad it does not seem appropriate for anything to be played but God Save the Queen.
"To play the national anthem for one team but not another could lead some countries to think that the separate tune is indicative of a national breakaway movement."
A follow-up letter, sent after the SFA’s decision had been made, noted “with disappointment that the Scots will play under the St Andrew’s Cross and use Scotland the Brave.”
Fletcher said, “The question of which tune is to be played is left to the sport’s governing body. As such, the secretary of state has no formal locus, and there is no case for intervening.”
Following the ordeal, the Scottish side were able to sing Scotland the Brave for the first time in front of the world, before being knocked out in the group stages of the tournament.
Ernie Walker, who in 1982 was the chief executive for the Scottish Football Association, claims that the UK government was nervous about nationalist issues following the work of the SNP's Jim Sillars.
He told The Scotsman in 2010 that, "Anything that was seen as predominantly or exclusively Scottish was played down."
He added that he would have gone head-to-head with government ministers if they had interfered.
