ANGER AS LIVERPOOL CUP FINAL FANS BOO WILLIAM
MPs condemn ‘shameful’ abuse hurled at Prince when he shook players’ hands
LIVERPOOL fans sparked widespread outrage yesterday for booing Prince William and the National Anthem at the FA Cup Final.
Jeers rang out around Wembley Stadium as the Duke of Cambridge, who is president of the Football Association, was introduced to Chelsea and Liverpool players before kick-off. Fans gesticulated and made obscene hand gestures while the solemn Prince stood singing God Save the Queen. The outburst by thousands of fans was last night denounced across the political spectrum.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said: ‘I utterly condemn any fans who booed Prince William at Wembley today.
‘The FA Cup final should be an occasion
when we come together as a country. It should not be ruined by a minority of fans’ totally shameful behaviour. In this year of all years – the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – this is dreadful.’
Tory MP and former Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said: ‘It is utterly unacceptable and disgraceful that fans booed Prince William. I would urge the FA to take all necessary action and pursue those responsible.’
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats said: ‘We have the most wonderful Monarch and those fans who booed do not represent their clubs or our country.’
The jeers started during a rendition of the Christian hymn Abide With Me by the 60-strong B Positive Choir, whose members have sickle cell disease or who have close friends or family suffering from it.
It erupted again as Prince William was introduced to the crowd and began shaking the hands of the players. The booing and jeers reached their peak during the National Anthem.
Connor O’Neill, football writer for the Liverpool Echo, said Liverpool fans ‘are well known’ for booing God Save The Queen at Wembley and claimed that the reasons date from the city’s antipathy towards Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government in the 1980s.
He said: ‘The Conservative Government’s “managed decline” of the city was then followed by the failings of the Government following the Hillsborough disaster, which further entrenched those feelings.’
There were also reports of supporters booing the National Anthem earlier this year, when Liverpool played Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final, also held at Wembley.
Former BBC Royal Correspondent Michael Cole described the booing as ‘disgraceful and deplorable’ and called for the Football Association to take action.
He also criticised BBC football commentators for failing to even mention the Liverpool fans’ ‘repulsive behaviour’.
Speaking last night to The Mail on Sunday, the broadcaster – who had more than 25 years’ experience with the BBC – said: ‘There is no excuse for that sort of behaviour. I’ve been a football fan for 67 years, and I’ve never heard such a thing.
‘We don’t want sycophancy in this country, but we want respect. And respect is due to the head of state.
‘Respect is due to the Queen, particularly at 96 when the whole world has been celebrating the fact that, after not being able to attend the State Opening of Parliament, she was at least able to go to the Royal Windsor Horse Show yesterday. So it’s bad manners.’
Sally Bedell Smith, who has written a bestselling biography of the Queen, criticised the booing as ‘really inappropriate’ and said that William would have found the outburst ‘very dismaying’.
She added: ‘George V and Queen Mary used to go to Wembley for the FA Cup Final so the tradition goes all the way back.
‘Prince William is the head of the FA and only wants to do well by the sport. It’s really unsportsmanlike of them. They may have their own agenda but I think they can probably put it in their pocket, particularly in this Jubilee year.
Left-wing trade unionist Howard Beckett, who last year stood to become general secretary of the Unite union before pulling out, praised Liverpool fans for ‘rejecting blind patriotism and the establishment’, adding the outburst was ‘pure quality from socialist fans’.
But he was condemned for his comments on Twitter. Paul Embery, a firefighter and fellow trade union activist, said: ‘This guy came within a whisker of leading Britain’s second largest trade union. Thank God he failed.’
Liverpool’s German-born manager Jurgen Klopp has previously refused to be drawn into commenting about his club’s fans’ booing of the National Anthem.
He said in 2019: ‘I don’t think I’m the right person [to ask], I know a bit about the history but it’s not for me to judge.’
Following the match, which Liverpool won after a tense penalty shootout, Prince William gave out medals to the victorious team. No further booing was heard.
The controversy came a day after Prince William personally delivered a damehood to cancer-stricken campaigner Deborah James before sharing afternoon tea and champagne with her and her family.
Mrs James, a former deputy headteacher, 40, has now raised almost £6 million after setting up a Just Giving page.
Hours later the Duke enjoyed a rare meal out with friends at Oswald’s, a private members’ club in Mayfair, Central London.