The Prince of Wales’ vocal support for the England football team highlights the absurdity of his title
Llinos Dafydd
A question: How many nations at the World Cup will have a person who holds the title of their leader who isn’t supporting them in the competition?
How many nations in the World Cup will have a person who is supposed to be representing them around the world who is supporting one of their rivals in the group stage?
This is the absurd position Wales now finds itself in, highlighted by headlines such as Prince of Wales tells England football team ‘the country is behind you’.
There is nothing wrong with Prince William, an Englishman who has supported England all his life, backing his team.
The absurdity is that he’s doing it while holding the Prince of Wales title. It’s rather embarrassing to Wales as a nation, after reaching the World Cup for the first time in 64 years, to have to stomach this.
Furthermore, he seems to have gone out of his way to highlight his support for the English team, when he could have realised the delicacy of the situation and stayed away.
There are two possibilities here – either the Prince of Wales and those around him don’t care about how this looks, or that he just doesn’t know Wales well enough to know how it will go down here.
Both of which call into question whether it’s appropriate for him to be Prince of Wales at all.
Joke
I suppose that there is a third option that is slightly more generous to William, which is that he wasn’t in a position to refuse either title – President of the FA or Prince of Wales – without causing a stink.
After all, it can be questioned how much agency members of the Royal Family really have. They can push to highlight their own interests and passions but they are largely figureheads who hold their titles in exchange for going and doing what is required of them.
But even then Prince William and his household could have been a little bit more tactful in how they go about supporting the England football team.
Saying ‘the whole country is behind you’ and ‘we’re all rooting for you’ when they are in just two weeks playing the team that he’s supposed to be the Prince of would, you would think, be a big no-no.
How difficult would it be to make light of the situation and crack a joke about the fact that he would be staying neutral on the topic of their playing Wales?
Sensitivity
It is worth remembering that this all comes at the tail end of a rather sensitive period in which the handover of the title of the Prince of Wales was handled rather clumsily and annoyed very many.
The decision was made by the King at great haste and without informing the democratically elected leader of Wales, the First Minister.
It comes after that same new King was booed on arrival in Wales and the local authority of part of Wales, Gwynedd, has voted not to recognise the title of Prince of Wales at all.
You would think that, under these circumstances, the Royals’ very impressive PR machine could demonstrate some sensitivity on such an important occasion for Wales?
But at the end of the day, it is the people of Wales themselves who continue to support this rather absurd state of affairs.
And while that continues, nothing else will change. The Royal Family can’t grow a spine for us.
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It would be even more embarrassing to have him patronising Cymru.
An excellent article. As you say it’s a reasonable proposition that Willy Windsock is able to support his home nation. He doesn’t want to represent us and we don’t want him to represent us.
So let’s make everyone happy apart from the genuflecting lickspittles in Mons and the Vale
Llinos highlights the “absurdity” of it all.
He is supporting English players, so Cymru gets the trickle down here as half of its national team is English.
England plugging the deficit as usual.
You’re welcome.
There has been a lot of talk about them re-defining the role (Prince/Princess of Wales) so the obvious best step would be to not play such a prominent role in either camp this time. Let the dust settle and work out what to do next. I have said I don’t like how many articles there are about William and Kate on this site but in this context – a mockery of the “lets modernise the role” message they have presented so far – I think it’s right to have an article and criticism. He’s not my prince, we’re not his… Read more »
I don’t want the inbred moron anywhere near our national team and i’m guessing the players think the same when they invited Dafydd Iwan and Michael Sheen instead of him.
It is surprising to see how these 3 little words, ‘Prince of Wales’, can have such devastating effects, especially abroad. I remember seing in the news, when Prince Charles went to Pakistan just before the first war of Irak, an angry mob with signs saying ‘Prince of WALES not welcome’… I guess it would not have been good to tell them you were Welsh back then…
But also, still abroad, these 3 words work as a perfect (but dishonest) sillogism: William is English, William is Prince of Wales, so Wales is England. That’s a clever propaganda.
Okay, even I will have to admit we can’t have this. As soon as he recieved the title, it should have been full-on for Cymru. Rob and Ryan are the type of guys we need.
Ultimately, until independence, what is needed is for the Senedd to announce it no longer recognises the Prince of Wales title. Undoubtedly, it wouldn’t change much, Westminster and the Royal family care little about how we think or feel, but it would still send a message – enough of this humiliation, it must end. When it is ignored – it’ll be more ammunition for us in the independence movement.
Ha! Ha! Good try Joan. However, as there is no evidence that the UK government will change its ways, and that includes any future Labour government, the UK is doomed. Without major change and the creation of a more equal UK – the country will break-up. A huge percentage of our youth in Wales now support independence – these are the facts. Calling us names will change nothing.
What a silly billy.
Hope this makes you stronger on the night boys- no better way to demonstrate two fingers than by beating his favoured team.
No more ‘royal’, lol, invites to any of them to Welsh rugby or football events. Just block them out. We don’t need false english support.
Croeso mawr fydd o yn ei gael eto .hen Wil y byrgyr
Thank you for this article. We need to use this example well beyond the tournament to demand this insult title is dropped oh and if there is a repeat of 2016 and Wales are still in the tournament after England have flown home, I trust he will remain as silent with his non support of our nation as he has been so far.
Just let him be Prince of England, he’s not too bothered about cymru.
Two jobs:
1, President of the English FA
2, Prince of Wales.
The two jobs are incompatible and can be held by the same person.
He must resign from one of those.
Since, he has always supported England, Is he now going to switch support to
the national team in which he is Prince?
If no, He should resign as Prince of Wales.
What’s more absurd is the fact that the union flag will be called British by the world’s media while they are playing the actual British people, who are now called the Welsh.
The titles Prince & Princess of Wales should be abolished.. What will it take for the Welsh people to wake up to this ongoing insult. 😤
Tanks down the M4 would be my Guess. The Cymro won’t wake up for Anything short of that. Sad I know!
Keep the faith! We are all waking up, albeit slowly!