Prince William’s World Cup fail exposes bigger problem

The Prince of Wales’ decision to skip the final World Cup match in Sydney has once again placed the monarchy under a microscope.

COMMENT

Prince William, you colossal idiot. You’ve stuffed up good, my son. Corked it. Big time.

I really hope that whatever the prince spent the weekend just past doing – re-organising his novelty sock collection or wearing his Crocs around Balmoral – was worth it because whatever he has been doing was clearly more important to him than, you know, keeping the Commonwealth together.

The World Cup might be over, the dizzying highs of the Matildas’ run sadly brought to a close, but it is not the English team who are the real losers here. Step right up, the House of Windsor!

Prince William is the President of the Football Association. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

The Prince of Wales faced backlash this week for failing to support the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia. Picture: Andrew Parsons/Kensington Palace via Getty Images

The last few days have seen no end of righteous anger directed at the royal family after it became apparent William would not be enduring 22-hours of British Airways’ finest first class treatment in the name of doing his job and turning up to do his duty (he is the President of the Football Association).

Unsurprisingly, Kensington Palace’s dismal sop of a social media video featuring William and daughter Princess Charlotte holding a soccer ball, failed to placate us ropeable sorts out in the former colonies.

However, if anyone inside the William and wife Kate, the Princess of Wales’ team had been hoping this debacle might soon recede into the rearview mirror now the Cup is over, buckle up kiddos.

Because this situation has actually exposed a much bigger problem: King Charles and William and Kate have yet to visit a single one of the 14 countries outside of the UK of which His Majesty is head of state.

Not. A. Single. One.

Good luck for tomorrow @Lionesses 💪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/a4WJ7ycVTK

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) August 19, 2023

Charles and wife Queen Camilla undertook a State Visit to Germany and will hit up France later in the year, while William and Kate managed to get themselves to Boston late last year for his Earthshot Prize.

Next month the prince will jet into New York for the Earthshot Innovation Summit before the Waleses descend on Singapore when Earthshot hosts a whole week of events in November.

Over the weekend, the Mirror ran a story saying that the King is about to hold a “royal summit” with William and Kate during which he will reportedly “tell the Prince and Princess of Wales of his intention to carve out precise roles for them as well as himself and Queen Camilla.

“Central to his plans will be to use William and Kate’s ‘star quality’ to help bind the Commonwealth together.”

King Charles and William and Kate have yet to visit a single one of the 14 countries outside of the UK of which the King is head of state. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

(I’m imagining Kate taking careful notes in perfect handwriting in her Smythson notebook while William disinterestedly stares out the window and ponders the great yawning question of lunch.)

A source close to Charles has said: “His Majesty is very clear. The Commonwealth must be at the very heart of his reign. He sees it as his utmost duty to fulfil the sincere wish of his late mother, that one of his central roles must be to ensure not only the survival but the robustness (of the organisation).”

The disconnect here is so mind-meltingly stupefying I need a cold washer gently applied to my forehead.

On one hand, we have some of those handy sources and insiders who reliably turn up in the British press to whisper sweet nothings into the ears of Fleet Street telling us how much the King & co. care about the Commonwealth, yet when push comes to shove it looks like William especially can’t be arsed.

King Charles is due to hold a royal summit with William and Kate soon to outline a plan to unite the Commonwealth. Picture: Jane Barlow – Pool/Getty Images

Can’t be arsed, that is, showing his support for women’s sport and can’t be arsed showing his support for two of the 14 countries he will one day head.

The overarching question here is, in the years to come, will William actually step up to keep one of his grandmother’s greatest legacies – the Commonwealth – intact?

(Others include championship level brooch wearing and perfecting her Resting Regal Dour Face.) Or is he more interested in haring off to pursue his own albeit projects to vainglorious ends, the stuff guaranteed to shower him in Gen Z TikTok love?

Sure, the Waleses might be a little gun shy about another Commonwealth tour after last year’s Caribbean fiasco, which saw them look woefully out of their depth when faced with issues such as the UK’s colonial past and slavery reparations.

However, the prince and princess have hot and cold running advisors, aides and press secretaries. These people should have been spending the last 18 months working out how to do international tours going forward without it ending up a suntanned shambles and their principals looking like extras from a TV adaptation of White Mischief.

The King and Queen also deserve to come in for criticism here too. His Majesty is, yes, nearly 75-years-old and Camilla is well known to hate flying, thus a trip Down Under might not be their idea of a great time.

But jobs – all jobs – come with less enjoyable parts that one must dutifully suck up and get on with it.

The Prince and Princess of Wales attend a ceremony in their honour during their Caribbean tour in March 24, 2022. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

What’s the point of all that stiff upper-lipping if not for moments exactly like this?

Arguments for why Charles, Camilla, William and Kate have yet to come to Australia – carbon emissions! Protocol! The cost! – simply don’t stack up given they have been doing plenty of flying, just elsewhere.

Also, how come the top tier lot have yet to hit the Commonwealth running while those further down the pecking order have along with plenty of other countries?

I present to you the always glorious example of Princess Anne who, in the last 12 months, has been to Uganda, the US, Cyprus, New Zealand, Canada and Australia (for all of a day during which she managed to visit the police stables).

Meanwhile, her brother Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh and titled afterthought, has been to Canada while together with wife Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, the couple has visited the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas.

The duchess, the most underrated member of Crown Inc. has also been to Iraq, where she spent four days in conjunction with her work to support victims of sexual violence in conflict zones.

Little wonder that late last year she also travelled to the US where, amongst a slew of working royal engagements, she collected a highly prestigious award from Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security in Washington.

Prince William and Kate have come under fire for not visiting Australia in recent years. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

If Anne, Edward and Sophie can make multiple trips to multiple countries, including Commonwealth nations, doing their bit to support the monarchy and fly the flag for Britain, why couldn’t William and Kate?

All they are being asked to do is to lie back and think of Britain via a first class seat.

After the World Cup, the problem now for the Prince and Princess of Wales is that when they do finally pitch up in Australia and put on their predictable razzle-dazzle double-act it will look a bit superficial.

It will look like they are happy to come here and indulge in plenty of trite photo ops when it suits them, or if there is something in it to bolster Brand Wales.

That sort of trip will do absolutely nothing to “bind the Commonwealth together.”

In 1997, in the days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Express ran a famous front page demanding of the late Queen, “Show us you care.”

Really, that is what Australia and women the world over were asking William this weekend. Show us you are interested in us. Show us you are even vaguely tapped into what is going here.

If Charles and William want to rule Australia, hey need to show us they care and are attuned to what is going on here. With the World Cup and the Matildas’ incredible run, we have just experienced a watershed moment as a nation.

I suppose their attitude can be summed up with Advance Australia? Meh.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as Prince William’s World Cup fail exposes bigger problem