Spain’s Queen Letizia travelling to Australia for the World Cup final
Queen Letizia of Spain will be travelling to Australia to watch her country in the World Cup final match against England this weekend, but she will not be joined by her British counterparts.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation has confirmed that Queen Letizia and her 16-year-old daughter, Infanta Sofia, will be flying to Australia for the match on Sunday.
It comes after Kensington Palace confirmed the Prince of Wales will not travel to Australia to watch the Lionessesā compete in their historic World Cup final.
Instead, William, who is president of the Football Association (FA), will watch the match on television.
Queen Letizia visited the Spanish team in Madrid in June, where she watched a training session and gave a speech to the players and coaching staff. She was also presented with a jersey bearing her name.
āThe Queen will be in the honour box at the Accor Stadium in Sydney, once again demonstrating the commitment of the Royal Family to national football,ā the Royal Spanish Football Federation said in a statement on Wednesday.
It is understood that William, who is on his summer break, made the decision not to travel to the Lionessesā final because a trip to Australia would involve flying across the world for a very short period of time.
TheĀ princeĀ has made tackling climate change one of his priorities ā though the palace did not specify whether climate fears factored into his decision not to make the 20,000-mile round trip to Sydney.
In October, he was not planning to attend the menās 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 Southgateās team had reached the final, PA news agency reported.
In the end, England lost 2-1 to France in the quarter-finals.
William did watch the Lionesses win the European Championship last year, presenting them with their medals at Wembley.
