We heard last week that Prince Edward was being sent to Vatican City to represent the British crown at Pope Bob’s papal inauguration this weekend. People wondered why Prince William, the “heir,” was once again refusing to represent his father overseas at an important event. Turns out, it was just what we knew it would be: William attended the FA Cup final on Saturday, and he made a big deal of presenting the trophy to the winners, Crystal Palace, who beat Man City.
If it feels like William has done more football-watching this year than ever before, well… it feels that way because “going to football matches” counts as work for him, because he says so! No, he’s now the royal patron of the Football Association, as of last year. He used to be president of FA, but he was pushed/thrown out of that role last year. The face-saving excuse was that William is simply too busy being a future-king to give the FA presidency all of the time it needs. Personally, I believe that many footballers are superstitious and William has proven to be bad luck over and over again, and so there was some kind of revolt to get Willy to step back.
Meanwhile, you know how YouGov commissioned an emotional-support poll to convince the public that the left-behind royals are super-popular? And you know how William staggered out of bed on Friday and threw on a wrinkled Order of the Bath robe for a special Westminster Abbey service? Well, people were so excited to see Mr. Popularity and his father (the king!) that literally twos of people waited outside of the Abbey. A journalist took a video of all of the rows of crowd barriers which were holding back absolutely no one.
The Prince of Wales arriving at Westminster Abbey for the 300th anniversary of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. #PrinceWillliam #RoyalFamily pic.twitter.com/HeTP7YnYU2
— Alexander Seale (@AlexSeale) May 16, 2025
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Getty.
He looks so awkward. Such hard work at those games. He lets Edward do work he’s supposed to do.
Then again, how else is Eddie going to justify Bagshot and its upkeep? Gotta keep being relevant in some way.
At Aston Villa, the team upon which Willy bestows the great honour of his support, fans call him the ‘Cooler’!! More often than not when he is in attendance at Villa matches they lose *snort* My 11yr old Grandson is a HUGE and ardent ManCity supporter. When I told him that Willy put the Hex on the team by being there, even he could laugh …. through his tears of misery at the defeat that is!!!
He’s Villa’s Ted Cruz. When he shows up, they lose. 😆😆😆
Crystal Palace battered Aston Villa in the previous round and William wasn’t there so his jinx is on the team itself. I hope he was incandescent with rage that he had to hand the trophy to the team who demolished is beloved Aston Villa in order to get there.
I couldn’t be happier that Crystal Palace won yesterday, thoroughly deserved !
People have LIVES. They don’t have time to take off work to go see these two duds.
There’s more people going to see Harry enter the justice building unannounced.
And watch him enter the church for IG 10th anniversary
It really is touching to see how many people still support Harry. He and Meghan have been under a vile attack for nearing a decade, it’s time for the British media to move on. It is flat out criminal, at this point.
It is beyond comical: the “twos of people”… omg! lolololol. There were more photographers there than “the public”. And yet, these left behinds *insist* on doing these farcical ancient rituals for themselves, to pat themselves on the back, and bestow more fake awards to pin to their ill-fitting clothes.
To be fair, I *used* to be an Anglophile; going on trips to England was something I always loved and I always enjoyed my times there. When Lizzie was alive, the pomp around Buck Palace was always well attended. Now, the “magic” is gone. We’ve all seen and heard the greed, the cruelty, the selfishness, the ill mannered comments/behaviors of the left behinds. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no draw for me to ever go back.
I actually felt sorry for the rats in that pen.
They should have spread them a bit more so the lack of people wouldn’t have appeared so stark.
@Blogger: they’re also stuck with everybody getting the same shot, which is not only boring but less of a moneymaker. Everybody wants the ONE unique shot that gets published everywhere.
Same!
I lol’d at “twos of them” 😭
The pictures of all of those unnecessary barriers are absolutely hysterical!
Why the surprise? William already said he is not going to waste his time on ribbon cutting instead focusing his bright light on large, high profile events. Guess he was afraid all the other guests of Pope Leo would out shine him.
This! He knew that he would look like a loser if he went to the Vatican. William thinking that he’s better than everyone else, while having less gravitas than anyone else there, might be why he didn’t bother going. “Featherweight” is his middle name and in that crowd expectations of him would be high as would the probability of him offending someone really important.
One would think that someone who considers himself a “global statesman” wouldn’t miss an event like the new Pope’s inauguration? Not much for him to do besides show up, and tons of press coverage.
I’m sure he had to do the school run, are you anti-family or something?/s
Just a note, the team is Crystal Palace, not Crystal City.
I bet William doesn’t show up for the women’s FA Cup final.
He didn’t go to the match.
The stadium is packed – he really missed a trick by not going. But we know he doesn’t support women’s sports. What an utter loser.
He didn’t go and Chelsea won a domestic treble without losing a single game which is bonkers. I guess this is not a big of an achievement for William though.
He barely ever even acknowledges the women’s part of the FA. Didn’t travel for the Lionesses’ world cup final… never shows up for the Women’s FA cup final… If he wants to be patron of the FA he has to acknowledge ALL parts of the association!
My understanding is that Patron is higher than President. The Queen was the actual Patron of the FA until she died. So William has become Patron now. You could ask why Charles didn’t become Patron after his mother died instead of William?
The royals are most of the time patrons, unless they are personally involved in it. I am sure the Presidency of FA would require more active contributions than the patron. I have no idea why they made him the President in the first place. I doubt he was attending meetings and strategizing anything.
It was funny and sad at the same time watching the monarchists on socials defending Willnot the Unwilling, on Friday for that Order of the Shower Curtains event and on Saturday for the Cup.
Many of them hadn’t even heard that Bulliam the Incandescent had been demoted at the FA, and many still think it’s justified that these lazy scroungers get hundreds of millions per year, income from the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall included — and cost the taxpayers ~ half a billion per year for not doing anything of substance.
There is absolutely no defense of him appearing in that wrinkled mess. None. I’d love to know what excuses they even tried to make?
Love to see those empty crowd control fences.. exactly what the left overs deserve for what they have done.. first to Princess Diana and then to the Sussex’s family.
Let them see those empty fences. Often. It might finally reach their thick skulls that the tabloids can only protect them from so much of reality.
The NY Times piece made a remark about Will having an actual passion for football and I can see it. He is spending more time on football than anything he claims he has passion for. It is also weird he wasn’t this involved when he was the President of FA. He missed a lot of important matches because he was “busy”. It seems like it hit him hard when they removed him from the position.
Exactly my thought: he was NEVER this involved when he was the president and all of a sudden he’s doing the most as far as football is concerned. It’s almost as though he’s auditioning to be re-appointed president of the association.
Well, in a way I don’t blame him. If he wants to be seen by the people, he should go where the people go. And that’s at football matches, not at antiquated ceremonies reeking of mothballs.
On the other hand, attending the Pope’s inauguration is important. He can’t be seen as a global statesman if he refuses to leave his home.
If he was seen doing more in general than the FB games wouldn’t be such an issue. In this case, he could’ve done both. And yes it’s a bigger crowd than the Bath one, lol. But this was the night before and not the day of. He could’ve done both.
“Literally twos of people” 🤣🤣🤣
He’s being nipped at his heels to do more substantial events and his response is to choose this over the Pope ‘s inaugural mass today attended by many high profile statesman. Football is UK national sport so FK maybe wants to be seen as relatable and down to earth rather than serious global statesman? Or at this point he’s doubling down and like ya,boo, sucks you can’t make me do anything I don’t wanna! It is like bribing a toddler isn’t it, nice football match if you are good enough to visit a food bank, gulp, with your wife?? Okay two football matches and then foodbank and exchange festive glance with wife??
@Lady Digby, IMO it’s the latter— he’s doubling down and making it clear that no one can “make” him do anything he doesn’t want to do. Like toddlers.
I was waiting for the bussed-in schoolchildren – and yes, there they were. Surprised their parents didn’t form part of the crowd.
They sure need to try harder. Maybe time it with the bus loads of tourists.
As for Willy, football is popular in England so he’s hoping some of the sport’s popularity rubs on him.
But the problem isn’t football, it’s him. He’s not popular and the lack of people at the Abbey should be a sobering reminder that he is not. The football crowds “tolerate” him, but he is not the main event. Unlike Harry.
Betting some of those bystanders were cousins and second cousins who didn’t get tickets to the Abbey to watch their uncle get his award in person. They seem to be grouped in family clumps.
Are Willy wranglers(perish the thought) just happy to do any event on a Saturday? FK will continue to cherry pick whilst older family members do the heavy lifting! Twas ever this!
Just seeing a few seconds of Baldy in a red superman cape trudging along, head down, past the two’s of bystanders brought joy to my morning. I hope he had a crashing hangover.
So Willy presented the trophy instead of the actual FA president, huh. One can only suppose Willy’s team begged for this, arguing that patron is higher than president, because he had to have some role to justify sitting in the bleachers while Edward did the pope’s installation.
Very obvious FK just chooses his favourite events whilst Anne and Edward pick up the slack.
Was watching the game yesterday and the trophy/medal presentation. All I could see was Willy getting the ick at having to shake so many Black men’s hands.
Willy, king of men’s soccer. How pathetic. So his whole job is going to men’s sporting events and grabbing a pint afterwards? That’s ain’t work. Love Dire Straits.
That’s money for nothing.
And he gets millions for it. He is an utter disgrace and embarrassment to Great Britain. He should be ashamed of himself (but being an arrogant, clueless prick, he must feel he’s doing England proud. Witless wonder.