Sickly football anthem

SIR – In the 1980s the new commanding officer of my Welsh infantry battalion unwisely held an inter-company choir competition. As a result, an unhappy audience had to endure the Slaves’ Chorus from Verdi’s

Nabucco being murdered, with the bluntest of instruments, five times in close succession.

I have been unable to appreciate this operatic masterwork ever since and am beginning to feel the same way about Sweet Caroline, a once loved song that I now wince to hear. Charles Smith-jones

Landrake, Cornwall

SIR – In a news broadcast on Monday, a BBC reporter said in shocked tones that only three players in the women’s squad were from an ethnic minority background. A representative of the FA said it was working hard to increase “diversity”.

Ethnic minorities make up 13 to 14 per cent of the British population. The squad contained 23 players. Three out of 23 is 13 per cent, so it seems that the squad precisely mirrored diversity within the UK – although not, of course, that within the M25 or Broadcasting House.

Joe Cobbe

Bisley, Gloucestershire

SIR – Already the wonderful Lionesses are being criticised for lack of diversity. How about another take on diversity, which is city versus rural background?

Players such as Georgia Stanway from Cumbria have had to overcome huge difficulties, travelling from a fairly rural and undeveloped area with limited sports facilities.

Diversity is not always a colour issue.

Norma Murray

Ulverston, Cumbria

SIR – If our wonderful women’s football team are called Lionesses, why do the media persist in calling them heroes and not heroines?

Myra Robinson

Newcastle upon Tyne

SIR – While congratulating the Lionesses on a magnificent victory, I cannot help thinking that calls for women’s football to receive similar funding, sponsorship and advertising, turning it into the same greedy, commercial enterprise as the Premiership, will only destroy the very reason I choose to watch it.

Robin Waite

Bridport, Dorset