Last week, Prince William was in Monaco for the UEFA Champions League. He watched his beloved Aston Villa lose to AS Monaco. Well, last night he somehow managed to make it to another football game. His wife and children were obviously not invited to join him in Birmingham. I think we’ve finally figured out why we’re getting this flurry of “work events” from Peggy in recent weeks. Someone finally got through to him: you can’t jaunt off to watch football whenever you want if you’re not also doing some work events. I wonder who finally had that “you look like an idiot” conversation with him. Speaking of, the atmosphere at last night’s match was quite chaotic, as Aston Villa was playing the Celtic. Celtic fans are notoriously anti-monarchy, anti-royal, and they have the loud chants to prove it. Those chants were going around the stadium last night:
The Prince of Wales was subjected to chants of “Lizzie’s in a box” and “If you hate the Royal family, clap your hands” by Celtic fans during Aston Villa’s Champions League clash with the Scottish club. Away supporters also displayed a banner in the stands glorifying an intruder who found his way into Queen Elizabeth II’s Buckingham Palace bedroom, days after Prince William was born. The Prince, Villa’s most famous fan, attended Wednesday night’s match and was seen celebrating wildly as the Premier League side raced into a 2-0 lead.
Home supporters were heard singing the national anthem in response to the abuse by Celtic fans, who were also said to have sung about the Prince’s brother, the Duke of Sussex.
The visitors appear certain to face punishment from Uefa, which fined Shamrock Rovers £8,540 a week ago for “transmitting a message that is not fit for a sports event” after their fans chanted “Lizzie’s in a Box” during their Conference League defeat by Chelsea last month.
Celtic fans’ banner about the Buckingham Palace intruder, which read, “Michael Fagan The Prowler”, was displayed barely three years after they celebrated the death of the late Queen with flags reading, “F— the Crown”, and, “Sorry for your loss Michael Fagan”. The club were later fined more than £13,000 by Uefa for breaching its rules during their 1-1 Champions League draw at Shakhtar Donetsk.
The contrasting attitude towards the royal family from Villa and Celtic fans proved a major subplot to Wednesday night’s game, which Villa won 4-2. The national anthem could be heard on the streets of Birmingham, while there were at least three “God Save The King” flags outside Villa Park and a St George’s Cross with a picture of the monarch.
As well as their supporters celebrating the death of the late Queen immediately after her passing, in subsequent Celtic matches chants were heard of, “If you hate the Royal family, clap your hands”, and “Lizzie’s in a box”, as well as, “You can shove your coronation up your a—”, before the following year’s crowning of the King at Westminster Abbey.
I remember some of those chants happening just hours after QEII’s passing in 2022. The fact that they’re still doing “Lizzy’s in a box” in front of Lizzy’s grandson… well, it’s a choice. What were the chants about Harry? Does anyone know? I also remember the EUROS in 2022, I think, when England lost to Italy, and the Italian fans claimed the Duchess of Sussex as their own and even put her on Italian flags. Sometimes football hooligans are so funny.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Getty.
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- Monaco, MONACO – Prince William, Prince of Wales attends the 7th day of the 2024/2025 Champions League between AS Monaco and Aston Villa at the Stade Louis II in Monaco. Pictured: Prince William BACKGRID USA 21 JANUARY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Monaco, MONACO – Prince William, Prince of Wales attends the 7th day of the 2024/2025 Champions League between AS Monaco and Aston Villa at the Stade Louis II in Monaco. Pictured: Prince William BACKGRID USA 21 JANUARY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Monaco, MONACO – Prince William, Prince of Wales attends the 7th day of the 2024/2025 Champions League between AS Monaco and Aston Villa at the Stade Louis II in Monaco. Pictured: Prince William BACKGRID USA 21 JANUARY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
So what monarchist decides what is appropriate to chant at a game?
While I love this for him, from his beloved team of all people, there are so many other things to hackle him with than rejoicing over someone’s death. QE2 was just as much of a feudal slumlord (lady?) as Huevo and KC3, draining NHS, military and other government funds, so why not start there??
It wasn’t his team heckling, it was the opposing tea.
And honestly, Lizzy’s in a Box or “if you hate the monarchy clap your hands” has more of a ring to it than “your grandmother father and you are all slumlords” lol.
I don’t know what they said about Harry but if Celtic fans did a chant saying Harry should be king that would probably bother William more than anything else.
Glasgow has a large Catholic population due to Irish migration to the city in the 19th century. They’ve had beef with the BRF for about 500 years so no surprise they are anti-monarchist.
The age of deference departed from platform seven years ago so Willy better get used to not my king chants !
the article was claiming that it was just celtic fans who sang anti monarchy chants but i bet there were many villa fans who joined in!
If there were chants about Harry the Telegraph would have said what being sung so either the chants didn’t happen or they weren’t insulting. But what I really want to know is did William go to that game not knowing he was going to be heckled by the Celtic fans and did he take the helicopter to Birmingham?
Yep- I would put money that the chant was an unfavourable comparison to Harry LOL.
That photo of his clench-toothed celebration gives me the biggest heebie jeebies.
He looks positively deranged in that photo, like he would literally beat someone down if they were within reach! Wow! Now I know what a Harry had to face from his ‘beloved’ brother on occasion!
He always looks like a wild animal baring its teeth. His Windsor horse teeth are truly too big for that small, little, mean mouth.
There’s no doubt in my mind that he took the helicopter to Birmingham..it’s his way to travel..he took the helicopter to the farm in Wales and he went by train to Liverpool but the helicopter was there to take him back to Windsor…and nobody says anything
It’s part of his PR arrangement with that particular photographer. You can see that he is leaning to the side to ensure that the photographer gets the shot. He and his wife are definitely two of a kind. Kate must be his new PR advisor, or he has poached hers.
oh I’m sure he took the helicopter.
Who pays for all these games? Is he just an invited guest of the owners or whoever?
They were singing ‘walking in a Harry wonderland’ so defo #teamSussex I’m Scottish and not a Celtic fan by any means but I love this 😂😂
Really? Walking in a Harry Wonderland?! 😂😂😂 well, farage did just call Harry wonder boy. Aston Villa won as opposed to the last few times William has watched them but it’s pretty funny that he had to
Endure these chants to experience the win.
Wow, clearly not everyone is for the monarchy. Which we know but this a very visceral reminder.
As football chants go these are very mild. My all time favourite football chant was during a Scotland and Italy match, with the Scottish fans singing “We’re gonna deep fry your pizza” to the Italian side.
Oh that is BRUTAL!!! 😄😄😄
Kate and the children are probably on That middleton vacation
Carole’s 70th. Wonder which Caribbean island and whether the rota will tell us if they figure out where she is. Would the kids be missing school?
Probably at Eden Roc, Pip’s father-in-law’s hotel.
Mustique, I image. Aren’t Pippa’s in-laws the owners?
@Chrissy: they own Eden Roc on St Bart’s.
The coronation chant video brought me such joy.
I’m in two minds whether to bring humanity to the fore and feel that mocking the death of someone’s grandmother isn’t acceptable vs knowing that he is a terrible human being and not caring.
Again, he is so unfortunate looking. Wow. I honestly don’t think even if he had a full head of hair he would be attractive. The teeth seem to stick out more with that scraggly beard.
Anyway, love this for him. Lazy, racist Willy.
He looks more sinister with that beard
I like the beard, but then I prefer men to have beards in general. Each to their own, I guess.
It works for others but it really gives William a “messy” appearance,
He looks like a drunken bum with that scraggly beard. And his smile has always bugged the F out of me.
I like that he supports a club like Aston Villa and not one of the bigger, more glamorous clubs who always win everything. It shows a love of the game and the club.
This is Billy Idle we’re talking about. My longstanding guess is that he just picked a team with the grandest sounding name and rolled with that.
Oh well, I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. You’re entitled to your opinion and I won’t waste your time by trying to argue about something so minor as Prince William’s favourite football club.
I do think its interesting that he’s an AV supporter and I wonder how that happened. Like, was there a big player in the 80s that he liked, or did he have a friend who was a big fan, etc?
I find sports fandoms weirdly fascinating especially when they diverge from the expected. Like he’s not from Birmingham – there are several London teams he could have supported growing up obviously but its AV.
We’re American, but we’re a Tottenham family (unfortunately) but my 12 year old has decided he’s a Man City fan because he likes to win, lololol.
William walked into that one. Writing as an Irish woman living in the UK I could have warned him. Celtic are a nightmare, 😂 they’re an ultra Irish Nationalist team based in Scotland as a football fan, he should have known
You’re crediting him with intelligence and curiosity in the world around him that he’s never displayed in forty odd years of life there 🤣🤣
If I’m wrong excuse me but I think you should reword that as Celtic FANS are ultra Irish nationalists even though plenty don’t have an Irish bone in their bodies nor are they Catholic with plenty of Islamic & Protestant supporters. The team itself may take its roots from the Irish priest starting a football team but starting in the 70s with Danny McGrain being their first Protestant signing, it’s now the player not the creed that determines the signing. I’m neither a Celtic nor a Rangers fan but I’ll always love Celtic fans for their support of the underdog and I’ll leave it at that.
It is funny to think that he is working more so that it won’t look bad when he goes to football games. I think about how he refused to go to Australia for the WWC bc it was during his vacation. Now imagine a scenario where Aston villa was playing a big game during his vacation. Like he wouldn’t have gone or even flown all the way to Australia. Obv it wouldn’t be in Australia but you get my meaning.
As soon as I saw who AV was playing against I thought “The Lizzy’s in a Box ppl?” Yup. Lol. I too want to know what they chanted about Harry.
Am I the only one who thinks he’s attending all these games as an FU to FA bc they fired him? He’s been to more games since than he ever did before.
Lastly, he’s terrifying looking.
The “Lizzy is in a box” was just brutal and if I’m being honest still makes me laugh. I would love to know what the chant with “Harry” in it said also.
As a Celtic fan, I’m glad my comrades heckled William. It’s not personal against him – any member of the British royal family in attendance would have received the same. As a club founded to help the poor in the east end of Glasgow (mainly Irish immigrants), the fanbase are proud of their working class origins and tend to be very anti-monarchy. Have a read about our club’s history –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_F.C.
I’m not sure what Prince Harry songs were sung but I imagine they may have been trying to taunt him about Harry escaping from the royal family.
I love a rowdy sports crowd, lol. What wouldn’t fly outside of the stadium is fair game inside it. Given the team’s origins, the Celtics are well within their rights to mock the Royals. And yes, I am including “Lizzie’s In A Box.”
In the US how unhinged the crowd gets depends more on the particular team than the sport, I think. Some cities have wild football crowds, some have wild baseball crowds. A few probably have both? Hockey gets rough and a lot of fights break out, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens among the fans too. But I think soccer fans are relatively tame.
While it may shock some sensibilities that they’re still doing Lizzie in a Box in front of her grandson, it’s only because the depth of feeling against the Monarchy is not seen in the mainstream on a regular basis. They DGAF about “grandma”, that would be a humanizing factor they completely reject. I mean, clearly. LOL
As for any Harry chant, it could have been pretty simple like Good King Harry or He’s our favourite. But I suspect they could come up with something much more clever and cutting. I wish we knew what it was, just for the laugh .
Many of us (not all of us) with Irish ancestry have been raised on hating the monarchy for its cruelty and the suffering it inflicted on previous generations. Even if today’s Celtic fans don’t really know the history, there’s a cultural predisposition against the monarchy.
Irish Times writer Patrick Freyne captured this perfectly when he wrote (in a review of H&M’s “Oprah” interview): “Having a monarchy next door is a little like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and has daubed their house with clown murals, displays clown dolls in each window and has an insatiable desire to hear about and discuss clown-related news stories. More specifically, for the Irish, it’s like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and, also, your grandfather was murdered by a clown.”
Excellent analogy!
That was perfect 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Stellar!
Pegs is more unattractive by the day.
No wonder nobody wants him.
The only reference to the chants about Harry I can find is from The Scotsman:
“They found their voice and their wit – certainly in the case of the “One Prince Harry” choruses, although some more depressing anthems were given an airing later – as Celtic began to secure a foothold in the game.”
If the reference is to “One Prince Harry”, they were probably singing it to the tune of ‘Guantanamera’. That’s quite a common chant tune.
i.e.
“One Prince Harry,
There’s only one Prince Harry,
One Prince Haaaaaaarry
There’s only one Prince Haaaaaaarry”.
I would like to see him get a similar welcome anytime he sets foot here to “conquer” America.
Maybe not us singing “Lizzie’s in a box” (accurate as that is), but a solid showing of bright yellow Not My King signs and some hearty boos and “Prince William get off our land”.
This is not brutal heckling. Go to a northern Minnesota hockey game. That’s brutal heckling and they haven’t left the locker rooms yet.
We love Harry sounds like a good heckle to me. And yes, Willem looks scary to me.
I wish they would get rid of the monarchy, it is an anachronism and an appalling way to choose a head of state, but Lizzie’s in a box is not nice. She was working for her country until a couple of days before she died.