There are ways that royal families engage with their national football teams and there is the Spanish royal family sharing video footage of King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, Crown Princess Leonor, and Princess Sofia embracing each other in matching personalized Spain jerseys numbered 26 after Spain’s 2-0 semifinal win over France, and then Prince William, the President of the Football Association, watching England lose 2-1 to Argentina the following night, which is the specific contrast between two royal sporting experiences that this week has produced.
King Felipe’s footage, shared on the Spanish royal family’s official social media accounts and confirmed by GB News today, showed the four royals in coordinated personalized jerseys watching Spain beat France in Arlington, Texas, on Tuesday, with the family embracing as Spain’s goals went in and the footage circulating widely as the kind of thing that royal social media strategies exist to produce. When asked by reporters whether the royal family would travel to the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, King Felipe replied: “We’re on it,” which is four words and covers approximately the entire range of information a constitutional monarch can responsibly volunteer about his forthcoming travel plans.
William, who has served as President of the Football Association since 2006, attended England’s matches during this tournament with the interest of a man whose role is simultaneously ceremonial and genuine, and who watched England beat Norway 2-1 in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Saturday before England lost to Argentina 2-1 in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday, eliminating England from the tournament in stoppage time through a Lautaro Martinez goal. William’s reaction to the loss has not been publicly detailed. The Football Association’s reaction was to fly home.
Argentina then celebrated by holding up a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” while English players were still on the pitch, a territorial claim about the Falkland Islands that the British government is now demanding FIFA investigate, which means the institution whose president is William’s counterpart in the sporting world is being asked by William’s government to investigate the team that eliminated William’s team using a banner about a war.
Spain are in the final. England are home. The jerseys were coordinated.
When one royal family watches their team reach the final in matching jerseys and another royal family’s team is eliminated by a Falklands banner, what exactly is the royal connection to football for?
Sources
GB News: Spain’s royal family share footage of World Cup celebrations
