French anthem to be played before weekend Premier League games

Koscielny is among 72 French players now in the Premier League which makes France the second-most represented nation after England.

The Premier League is considering making the cost of away days cheaper from next season.

The EPL tribute will allow hundreds of thousands of fans attending Premier League matches – on Saturday, Sunday and Monday – to pay their respects to the 129 people who died in the Paris attacks last Friday.

Premier League executive Chairman Richard Scudamore stated that the league will play the anthem because of the “long standing-relationship” the league enjoys with France.

A choral version of the song, likely to be in French, will be played on the coin toss with opposing teams coming together with officials and referees in the centre circle facing the main stand.

“Following consultation with Northumbria Police, we would like to reassure supporters that appropriate safety and security measures are in place at St. James” Park.

St James’ Park will play “La Marseillaise” before the kick-off tomorrow after Premier League clubs all agreed it was the right step to take after last weekend’s Paris attacks.

Audiences for Premier League games on United States television have risen by 150% in three years, and were up by 67% year-on-year for the opening weeks of this season.

A league spokesman said: “Clearly there is a heightened sense of awareness that clubs and fans must be sensitive to”.

It has also asked both clubs to broadcast the hashtag #TodosSomosFrancia (“We are all France”) during the moment of silence on screens in the stadium.

“It’s not an obvious one for the fans, just like it would not be an obvious one for fans in France to sing “God Save the Queen”, because they don’t know the words”.

Anderlecht are the only team in the Belgian top division that play in Brussels.

Wenger said that he had been due to attend last Friday’s friendly between France and Germany at Paris’s Stade de France, which was targeted by suicide bombers outside the ground, only for a late change of plans.

Machine gun fire and screams were heard from inside a restaurant on Rue Bichat, close to where the Charlie Hebdo shootings happened in January, at around 9pm.