William and women's football

[Nono22972]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12413893/amp/Prince-William-not-attend-World-Cup-final-watch-Englands-Lionesses-face-against-Spain.html

One again, William's neglecting women's football. The Lionesses made history. It is the first time that the English team (male or female) reached the World Cup final since 1966. We all know that if the men had reached the final, he would've been there and probably would've brought George with him.

Queen Letizia and her daughter Sofia will be attending. What's William's excuse? You are président of the Football Association.

This is really disappointing but I'm not really surprised. The young generation of royals are such a joke compared to previous generations. Yes, the Queen’s children had their controversies but when it comes to royal work, they always got the job done.

Thanks I’m glad I didn’t dream it.
so he flew to the states to discuss climate change
🤣

Geoff Hurst could be the next president of the FA. Since 1939 it's always been a member of the Royal Family but perhaps it doesn't have to be.

As I’ve said a few times, that’s a decision for the FA to make for itself, not the internet!

Also - the wedding in Jordan was an event which counted as a state engagement (i.e. the Foreign Office would have wanted them to attend). The Wales’s were representing the British crown at a state wedding of a very important strategic ally of the UK. Happily for them, they are close to the Jordanian Royal family, but even if they had not been, they would still have to have gone.

That was a three-day trip in which they hosted the Earthshot Awards event, meet Joe Biden, visited the JFK Presidential Library and met with Caroline Kennedy, visited various local climate-changed focussed organisations and went to Harvard.

Very important. Good to know that representing his team in his capacity as President of the FA is not as important (especially for a cohort who are underrepresented and only recently have come to the fore). 👍🏽

It wasn’t a random “Middle East wedding” it was the wedding of the Crown Prince of Jordan, PW represented the King. As much as I enjoyed the world cup it’s not a state occasion. It’s also about 1/6th of the carbon footprint of a roundtrip to Australia.

Yes, see - his staff are perfectly capable of planning around when he to go somewhere for a single event to ensure the time either side of it isn’t wasted and he can get a few other useful meetings or visits in as well. It would have been perfectly possible for them to plan that if England made it to the finals, he could fly out on Monday/Tuesday and have had several days he could do useful things to impress how important Australia is to the commonwealth.

like when he went for Earthshot - they made the most of his time there.

The only way William was ever only going to go just for the match was if he’d caved to pressure on Friday/Saturday and hopped on a plane last minute. If he had considered the Women’s team important enough to plan around, he would have had time to make plans.

lets not pretend this isn’t either a snub or a fuck up. He’s still trending, it’s not going away quickly.

Geoff Hurst is 81. Nothing wrong with him doing it, but maybe taking on a big role at that age might not be something he wants to do.

Genuine question, if PW was someone you felt neutrally about & you heard he’d planned a tour of Oz at the worst possible time (when a major tournament is going on, everyone is preoccupied, and he’s going to get zero coverage) such that the whole thing is a waste of time & money… and you knew he was only doing it so that he could get away with watching a bit of footie at the end, would you say that was OK?

@AliceOlive
im not a football fan
Are you ?

@LimeCheesecake Trending where? I am not in UK. He’s not trending here. If I google “trending UK” he’s not even on the list that comes up first and it’s 50 topics long.

And also in August when a lot of civil servants are on holiday.

No, so I’m not making suggestions for changes in the sports governing body for England. I did look at their website though and discovered it’s not like that the president’s job is all about attending specific games.

Forget Geoff Hurst - what about Jill Scott or even Queen Mary of Earps with her brilliantly golden gloves - c’mon FA - make Jill President!

I think a lot of people don’t realise that Twitter/X (ugh) shows you items that are trending “for you” - ie they are not objtiely trending, but they are a cluster of posts on a topic you read a lot of posts about.

Put it this way - if you read a lot of posts about Prince William, topics involving Prince m will be presented to you as trending. This is not at all the same as being in the actual trending topics.

if he was in Australia for a few days for the final and had other meetings before and after, a 3-4 day thing, not a full tour, perfectly fine. In the same way I’d be surprised if he flies for earth shot to Singapore and literally only does that then comes home again.

he could have gone. He should have gone. The environmental reasons are the only of the possible reasons he didn’t turn up that isn’t insulting /make him look lazy - and that’s questionable given he will fly for things he considers important (back to the women team not being important) and him not going meant the government needed to send someone else. (So saving nothing.)

@AliceOlive - just taken the screen shot of X/twitter for UK trends

The mirror headlines about Hurst slamming William is a bit convoluted anyway.

Prince William slammed by World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst after missing Lionesses' final

not exactly.

He was asked if he thought a member of the Royal family should have attended:

“Yes, I do. I think if the royals attend the men’s game, they should definitely.”

“It’s an English team, a World Cup tournament, a member of the royal family should definitely have gone. No argument at all about that.”

I know that’s disappointing, though.

Yep, I googled what’s trending overall in UK and he didn’t come up.

How on earth is that not a criticism?!!!

He's made his feelings plain on it. " I think a member of the Royal Family (hint hint... William) should definitely have attended. "

Precisely. This is a bash William thread by people who don't know a thing about football and the people who play it.

There is a difference between living in caves and not doing simple things in your private life that will not really affect you much like using a train or car instead of a helicopter or not accumulating homes that then have to be completely renovated to suit your needs and then hardly use ( like the KP kitchen and the Anmer tennis courts moved a couple of feet) He does the big showy off things to show how hard working he is but doesn't inconvenience himself. Even Earthshot flies the big shots and celebs over for glitzy events but hasn't given out nearly as much in prizes. The nominees have to appear on Zoom. They are the inspirational people doing things to combat climate change, but the story will be about Kate wearing a £3k dress twice.

The comments on that mirror article are all over the map.

leave William alone, King of Spain sent his wife and daughter

Yet here we have all praise for Spain and how dare Charlotte be on the video.

@AliceOlive
Did you read it ??

In the UK that is a strong criticism!

Of course people will read into it whatever makes them happy, Rousette.

I suspect no one complaining here even tuned in.

@derxa

Im bashing him for being a lazy sod who thought he could get away with it

I’ve never claimed to be a football fan.

Windsors are raking in millions and doing sod all and Willy is rightly being roasted in the media .

Why do people keep making these comments like you bet we didn't watch, don't know the team etc My whole house watched! My DH watched every game they played, and the girls watched most of them. I don't think thats the best defence to valid criticisms of the President of the Football Association, to assume the women here don't watch football.

Did you read more than the headline? Listen to any of it?

You clearly want to the focus to be on William. That takes it away from these women and the ones that laid the ground work.

Which is where it should be:
https://twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status/1693529429949960291/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1693529429949960291&currentTweetUser=BBCBreakfast