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.

@LimeCheesecake agree totally about the bind. This will defo bite him on the arse later on if England men ever do well.

I can't believe you'd be President of the FA and not be moving heaven and earth to he there that support your women. It just beggars belief.

At first I was annoyed reading this but thinking logically doesn't it make a difference that it's a commonwealth country and would take alot of official planning etc? It's not like he can just rock up in a commonwealth country without being invited to do so?
Either way I feel he is damned if he does and damned if he don't

Just to spell it out:

People are not talking about PW attending a football World Cup final when other countries are playing.

People are talking about the president of the football federation not attending the world cup final when the national team are on it - and very likely to win it. It's really really odd, especially when money and time are object. Difficult not to see it as a snub.

*are no object

FFS autocorrect

Not just Australia! New Zealand too.

If they were doing things behind the scenes we would know about it.

History shows the reverse, actually - quite often we’ve fund out about big projects that only came out quite some time later.

My bad NZ too 🙌

He can't go just for the match, that's a horrific carbon footprint. I don't think he can fly on a standard flight either due to security. I daresay they could have managed a family holiday in Australia and made it to the football but for whatever reason it didn't happen.

I'm sure he'll host them at KP when they get back or Charles will do it at BP if they win.

Considering how much we are paying for his office staff, they seem pretty shit that this has come as a surprise.

Given the CEO of the FA has publicly confirmed that he and the players have “always known he wouldn’t be able to attend [the final] because of his diary”, then clearly it wasn’t a surprise to them, and he in fact went to the trouble to let them know in advance that if they made the final, he couldn’t go.

Yes it’d be full entourage and security set up. When they go anywhere it’s a big deal due to this

I don’t want us to insert ourselves anyway. It’s Aus / NZ event and I’m watching for the football and our incredible team not for RF or U.K. PM airtime

Why the differing levels of hysteria around the Men's game?

@Serenster and not only that they have always known but how happy they are with the POW’s ongoing support for the team!

@Serenster - except he’s known the dates of the World Cup final for a very long time and has scheduled something else in those dates, holiday apparently- not another work engagement. He’s chosen not to keep these dates free and then at the start of the tournament said he’d not kept the dates free.

he didn’t plan at any point to be able to go. No one in his office suggested he might want to keep these dates available, or maybe they did and he decided the woman’s World Cup isn’t important.

Holiday apparently- not another work engagement.

That’s your assumption. None of us have any idea what’s scheduled that clashes with travelling to Australia to the final. And, given a trip takes at least a full day to travel out to Australia (often more, given time spent in transit), plus the same back, plus you lose a day in travelling, plus the day he’s in Australia for the final, he needs a minimum of 5 days for a 90 minute match. So that’s five days that need to be cleared, some of which may already have obligations already.

But you have no idea what the competing demands on his diary were and nobody could be sure the Lionesses would be in the final. You’ve just assumed “it’s a holiday”.

And as has already been said, the optics of flying all the way to Australia and back just for this and not bothering to have any Australian based official engagements would be terrible.

I bet there’s also been a consideration of if they do this one thing in their summer holiday then the next time someone asks him or Charles to do something it’d be an insult if they’d do the football but not X event.

it’s all so political as well. Especially within the commonwealth.

Even down to going to a match in Australia but not going to any in NZ would be a factor as well as that could be viewed by people in NZ as a snub.

Also there is a major referendum happening in Australia at the moment regarding recognition of the indigenous population and Charles is yet to visit as Head of State so there are wider considerations.

William may also be conscious of the holiday plans of his staff which he might not want to disrupt!

To answer some points:

• What W would do if the men’s team got into a world cup final is entirely speculation. We can say that he generally doesn’t go to watch England in men’s world cups. The last time England was in a world cup final he was about 4 (and he didn’t go)
• There is ample & overwhelming evidence that PW enjoys, supports, attends women’s football.
• ”Well he should have known in advance and cancelled his plans for that day just in case, like he would for the men’s”… yeahhh… about that… the last men’s team was probably the best we’ve ever had. And they went out in the semis. Anyone cancelling their plans 2 years in advance is delusional.
• “Lazy PW won’t interrupt his holiday to watch women play football.” The last major international game he went to was England vs Germany in the Euros final. The women’s. During err - the summer holidays. Also if you REALLY don’t believe optics & logistics come into it - Man Who Loves Football Misses Out On Swanning Off For Three Days For Once In A Lifetime Game To Spend Time With His Kids is maybe not quite painting him as the monster you’re aiming for.
• And as for “well he should have planned a state visit or tour at the same time and stayed there longer” - and what would be the point? Scheduling a tour of a WC host nation during the tournament is a terrible idea because he would get 0 coverage of it, everyone is distracted, and the host nation government are kiiiind of busy already.

I'm hacked off that he's head of the English FA. It's not the national team, it's the English team.

But there is no national team except at the Olympics, and even then not every time.

This is the first thread I've seen that mentions the incredible progress of the Lionesses - however tangentially.

Bizarrely it's about the attendance or otherwise of PW at the game, which I suppose underlines the gulf in attitudes towards the men's and women's games.

I feel William flying halfway around the world would just add to the pressure on the women's team. I just want them to win and I don't really want any politicians or royalty jumping on the bandwagon.

@derxa he is the patron of Welsh Rugby Union.

@PrincessTigger 👏👏👏

I can't imagine that anything William could do could possibly increase the pressure on a team about to play in a World Cup Final. Unless they're planning to put a gun to Charlotte's head and threaten to shoot her unless the Lionesses win. That might increase the pressure a bit.

Kate is patron of English Rugby Union and Anne is patron of Scottish Rugby Union. Ireland takes players from the whole of the island of Ireland so no Royal patron. However to have William as the patron of the English FA and no royal patronage of Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish is a bit shit. I like William and think he's done the right thing here. He knows there is a big chance he will be booed by Australians in the crowd. They booed the English team throughout the match. I actually watched it and like football