Confirmed: Newcastle to Pay Tribute to Paris Disaster this Weekend

The French national anthem – La Marseillaise – will be played before Newcastle’s Premier League match with Leicester this weekend.

A choral version will be played after the coin toss at every Premier League match over the weekend, with players from both teams planning to come together with match officials in the centre circle.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore described it as “an act of “solidarity and remembrance” after the Paris attacks in which 129 people died.

There are 72 French players currently in the Premier League, with Newcastle currently harboring 10% of that figure (seven).

Moussa Sissoko, Yoan Gouffran, Florian Thauvin, Gabriel Obertan, Sylvain Marveaux, Massadio Haidara and Emmanuel Riviere all began their careers across the channel.

There is no doubt that the terrible events in Paris last Friday would have come as quite a shock for the players, especially for Sissoko who was playing in that fateful France-Germany fixture that was targeted by the aggressors. And this gesture will certainly prove to be a fitting tribute to those who disastrously last their lives in the terrible attacks.

English fans sang La Marseillaise with gusto at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday night in honour of those killed during Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris. And I’m sure we will see similarly moving scenes on Saturday.

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