Should William switch football teams now that he’s Prince of Wales?
No, and I’m going to answer this question with the amount of sincerity it warrants.
Let’s break down what it means to have a team.
To have a team means that you can pick said team for whatever reason you want. It doesn’t have to make sense, even though William’s reasoning for supporting the England football team—that he grew up watching and supporting them—is a reasonable one.
If you want to examine the stats, check out the players, see how they stack up against their competitors and choose that way, fine by me. But you can also pick a team based on something totally unreasonable, and it’s okay.
Do you want an example of an unreasonable reason for picking a team? I’m a Canadian with a tepid interest in hockey—don’t tell anyone, I think I can be fined for admitting that—my team is the Montreal Canadiens…only because I like their logo.
In my defence, there are no NHL teams based out of Atlantic Canada, so it’s not like I have this moral quandary over the fact that I should be supporting my home team, but the fact remains that I picked the Canadiens for a very dumb reason and it’s stuck. I will support the Canadiens until the day I die.
My cousin is a diehard fan of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team, probably because they won the World Series in the mid-‘90s and he’s just never stopped rooting for them to do it again.
My aunt loves the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team because that’s her favourite animal. The point is you can make up any reason at all to support a team. Unless you’re a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. That I cannot abide.
Honestly, outside of your national team, how many of you out there support your home team, regardless of sport? I’ll definitely be waving the flag for Canada when the World Cup begins this weekend, but if they hadn’t secured their spot, I’d probably be rooting for England or Denmark (yes, I am only choosing Denmark there because I admire Queen Margrethe. See? I get to pick any reason in the world to support them).
Do I think that we’re all looking for controversies where none exist? Yes. William did admit that he’s supported England football since childhood, and he can’t change now. But he also admitted that he prefers Wales’s rugby team (he’s also the patron of the Welsh Rugby Union).
I can appreciate that with his new role as Prince of Wales, he’s going to have to walk a finer line regarding diplomatic matters, but rooting for a football team isn’t it. Should Cymru make it far, I can’t imagine William not sending them a message of support as they advance.
Sports are a unifier, but at the end of the day, it’s just a game. Let William cheer for England.
