Fans poke fun as King Charles III coronation hymn bears similarity to Champions League anthem
‘You can’t beat Champions League games like this at Westminster!’: Fans joke King Charles III ‘automatically qualifies’ for European football’s biggest tournament as a coronation anthem bears resemblance to the famous football anthem
- Zadok the Priest was played on Saturday during the coronation of King Charles III
- The historic anthem served as the basis for the iconic Champions League anthem
- Fans online were quick to mock the similarities between the two songs
Fans have joked online after a hymn performed at King Charles III’s coronation bore a striking resemblance to the Champions League theme.
During the ceremony, a well-known song started playing that left football fans on social media wondering if they had just heard the famous national anthem.
However, the song performed was not ‘Champions League’ but instead ‘Zadok the Priest’, a coronation song composed by George Frideric Handel in 1727 for the coronation of King George II.
As covered by Mail Sport earlier this week, the anthem that has become synonymous with European football was written by Tony Britten and inspired by the classic anthem.
But football fans couldn’t help but take to social media during the ceremony to playfully poke fun at the resemblance.
Football fans noticed a striking resemblance in one of the hymns performed during the coronation of King Charles III
The coronation choir sang Zadok the Priest, a hymn that served as the basis for the Champions League song
@AlexanderFoxEtc wrote: ‘Zadok the priest. You just can’t beat a Champions League match like that in Westminster.’
@Virtualstatman added: ‘And with that, King Charles III now automatically qualifies for next year’s UEFA Champions League’
@FPLReactions asked: ‘Am I so obsessed with football, I hear the Champions League song at the coronation, I think I’m losing it’
Meanwhile, comedian Dara O’Briain quipped, “Turned off for a while; now they are building a box on the champions league music. Will Charles get out?’
Rachel Wearmouth wrote: ‘I’m sure much of the population only knows this as the Champions League music’
Fans took to social media to mock the similarities between the classic anthem and the iconic anthem
Another user agreed: ‘Swear I thought it was the Champions League anthem’
Speak with the BBC in 2020 Britten expanded on the origins of his work, insisting that the similarity between his football anthem and the historic coronation hymn be limited to the first string phrase.
“Some say Handel’s tune was stolen, but it isn’t,” he insisted. “It’s just the first sentence I write, and the rest is me.”