I like national anthems, some of them. We have stipulated this on this site. (And if I ranked them right this minute, France and Russia would be 1-2 … or 2-1.)

The final seven games of Euro 2012 begin at 10:45 p.m., here in the UAE, and I have been working in the office for a chunk of this tournament, and I wander over to the TV to listen to the various anthems.

And also to see who sings.

Before the Spain-France game tonight … not a single Spaniard was singing. None. Barcelona guys, Real Madrid guys. None of them.

Hmmm.

Not one of the starting 11. Then the camera cut to the bench … and no one was singing there, either. Not the coaches. No one.

My first thought? The group decided not to sing. To look somber … but no singing. That way we don’t see some doing it, some not. But a collective decision.

Then I had another thought.

Does Spain’s anthem not have lyrics?

Ah, wikipedia. Twenty years ago, finding out the answer to “Spain, lyrics, national anthem” would have taken me a fair chunk of investigation to figure out. Now?

I found out within seconds that Spain’s national anthem does not have lyrics. Spain and San Marino.

If you didn’t follow the link … Spain’s anthem is about 250 years old, and it was written without lyrics, had some applied to it a time or two (most recently by General Franco’s government), and now it is back to having no lyrics at all.

Spain’s players should consider themselves lucky.

Anthems and lyrics and singing are a sort of minefield for players. No matter what you do — sing, don’t sing, kinda sing — someone will be unhappy with you.

You sing and you’re a patriot — or a government toady.

You don’t sing and you hate your country — or you’re a free spirit who doesn’t do what The Man wants.

You kinda sing — and you’re a wishy-wash loser.

Those seem to be the options, and all come with a down side.

I have noticed in this tournament that Germany’s singing patterns are very interesting. I have witnessed this no fewer than three times, so it wasn’t a one-shot deal.

If the player looks like a person that other Germans would assume is German, that player sings. This includes the ethnic Pole on the team, Lucas Poldoski.

If the player does not look like the German majority … he does not sing.

Among the latter: Jerome Boateng, whose father is from Ghana;  the midfielder Sami Khedira, whose father is Tunisian; and the midfielder Mesut Ozil, a third-generation Turkish-German.

Those guys do not sing. I imagine someone in Germany doesn’t like that. I imagine others in Germany applaud them for it. What it suggests is that Germany has not quite absorbed its minority groups.

Anyway, Spain doesn’t have to worry about this — which is just as well, considering that the Basques and the Catalans, for starters, might not be interested in singing the Madrid-inspired national anthem.

I’m sure other athletes around the globe wish they were spared having to sing, too.