Centre Court seats empty as fans defy World Cup black-out
WHILE Wimbledon officials pretended a World Cup quarter-final was not being played, the visitors to SW19 did not, and that became abundantly clear come 3pm yesterday.
Centre Court, where tickets cost £102 each, was embarrassingly empty as England faced Sweden in Samara, with rows of vacant seats and a bare Royal Box at the start of Angelique Kerber’s game with Naomi Osaka.
It could have been very different, had Wimbledon not banned fans from streaming the football on their mobile phones while courtside.
Seemingly, the All England Club were worried about exuberant celebrations, or perhaps impromptu choruses of ‘It’s Coming Home’. Eagle-eyed stewards were on the lookout.
Sir Bobby Charlton, a hero of 1966 and special guest in the Royal Box for Sporting Saturday, may have managed to catch some of England’s 2-0 win at least.
The 80-year-old dutifully stayed in his seat until Rafa Nadal’s win over Alex de Minaur was completed at 3.30pm, and then left, no doubt to find a television in the members’ area.
Sir Bobby returned once England were two goals to the good to respectfully catch the end of Kerber versus Osaka.
Away from Centre Court, there was a lot of checking of phones from those who stayed on Henman Hill, while some left the grounds to go to the nearest pub.
Security staff who were not allowed to leave their posts asked politely for score updates, and some wellprepared punters sat on benches with iPads.
This was the day Wimbledon closed the curtains on the World Cup. Quite literally, as the blinds to the media centre were shut so that anyone passing by could not peer through the window.
While journalists inside celebrated Harry Maguire and Dele Alli’s goals, the outside world had no idea England were on their way to the semi-finals.
Maybe some of them did not care, but there were thousands who did. It felt strange and, as far as mutual football and tennis lovers at Wimbledon were concerned, unnecessary.