Spain’s Queen Letizia to travel for World Cup final while UK royals stay at home

Kensington Palace confirmed the Prince of Wales would cheer on the Lionesses from the UK.
The Prince of Wales will not be travelling to Australia for the final (Phil Noble/PA)
PA Wire
Josh Payne17 August 2023

Queen Letizia of Spain is set to travel to Australia for the World Cup final, while UK royals are due to remain at home.

The Spanish royal will travel with her 16-year-old daughter Ifanta Sofia for Sunday’s fixture against the Lionesses in order to show the country’s “commitment” to national football.

The Royal Spanish Football Federation made the announcement on Thursday, the day after England beat the Matildas 3-1 in Sydney.

On Wednesday, Kensington Palace confirmed the Prince of Wales, who is also president of the Football Association (FA), would not be travelling to Australia for the final.

Instead, he will watch the match on television as he cheers the Lionesses on.

In October, he was not planning to attend the men’s World Cup, staged by controversial hosts Qatar, due to a busy winter schedule.

But it was understood his office might have looked at making arrangements if Gareth Southgate’s team had reached the final.

It is understood William made the decision not to travel to the Lionesses’ final because a trip to Australia would involve flying across the world for a very short period of time, and there were other ways he could show support for the team.

The prince has made tackling climate change one of his priorities, launching the Earthshot Prize to find solutions to repair and regenerate the earth.

William saw the Lionesses win the European Championship last year, presenting them with their medals at Wembley.

After the Lionesses’ semi-final victory on Wednesday, both the King and the Prince of Wales congratulated the team on their win.

William celebrated England’s “phenomenal performance” as he tweeted a personal message of congratulations.

The King also sent his “warmest congratulations” from all the royal family, hailing the “mighty Lionesses” as an “inspiration on and off the pitch”.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in