Prince William (46 page)

‘During the time he was in Zurich, he didn't go around giving inspirational speeches, but he came and he said to everybody, “How are you, and how are you doing, and how do you think it's going?” And just by taking that degree of interest and being involved with everybody, talking to David Beckham and the other presenters, he became team captain. He assumed that role naturally. He was the leader.'

The Household were all intensely proud of the Prince when they watched him in action in Zurich. ‘He knew that would be a very difficult back-stabbing environment, one he'd never experienced before, but having staked his colours to the mast many years before, it was more than duty, it was about showing leadership on behalf of the country but not doing anything that you feel uncomfortable about. He never crossed the line. They had councils of war and the Prime Minister had his sleeves rolled up, and the Downing Street team was there, Boris Johnson [the Mayor of London] was there and the FA and all its legions; they were all in a big room where there was coffee and press officers running around. William came in and somebody pushed a chair out in the middle and he sat down and the whole room went quiet and somebody in the FA said something, and William thought about it in a really considered way and said, “This is the way I think we
should do it.” It was one of those straight, “What is the right thing to do?” moments. It was straightforward common sense and everyone metaphorically sighed and thought, “Yes, that is the way to do it.” He wasn't being pushy; it was just great to see him apply what we know he's got coming out of every pore, come out in that environment.'

Simon takes up the story. ‘On the first rehearsal, which was taped, he couldn't be there so I stood in as Prince William. I do very poor amateur impressions … We showed it to him so he could see the layout and I could see him looking at me as I did this rubbish impression of him. No comment was made, but at the final rehearsal I did an impression of Sepp Blatter, the FIFA President, because he was going to introduce the whole thing and would introduce Prince William. When we got in the car afterwards, I said, “So, today I have been both Prince William and Sepp Blatter.” And he said, “I'll tell you something. Your Sepp Blatter is a lot better than your Prince William!”'

Despite emotional and impassioned speeches from William, David Beckham and David Cameron, the hero of the hour was, arguably, Eddie Afekafe, who opened the pitch by saying, ‘Football changed my life. I grew up in one of the roughest parts of Manchester. Most of the guys I grew up with were in gangs – some still are, some are in prison. What they didn't get, but I got, was an opportunity – and that was through football.' William, following him, picked up on his story. ‘What Eddie represents is a credit to FIFA, because it's your game that transformed his life. As exceptional as Eddie is, in 2018 FIFA has the opportunity to create more opportunities for people like Eddie the whole world over. It is England's national game, a supremely powerful force for binding the country together. It's our passion. I love football, the English love football. That's why it would be such an honour to host the England 2018 World Cup.'

‘He did his presentation extremely well,' says Simon. ‘Our entire presentation was very good. It didn't win in the end but it was good.

‘The announcement was going to be made at some big conference centre. William travelled there with us and we'd agreed with him and the Household that if we had won Sepp Blatter was going to present the World Cup to somebody nominated by the delegation, and that should be the President, Prince William. He would then be invited to say a few words.

‘As we went down, I came with him, [Bill] Clinton joined us, and the FIFA executive committee came out of their meeting to go into the announcement as well. Ahead was a bank of press. Our executive committee member, Geoff Thompson, came out, said to Andy Anson, my boss, “We haven't won, we got knocked out in the first round.”Andy told me, I told Prince William. At this point, we've got Bill Clinton right by us, we're walking to a bank of media and I just slowed him down a moment and said, “We haven't won.” He said, “How do you know?” I said, “I've just been told we got knocked out in the first round,” and he composed himself and said, “Right, please make sure that the whole team retain their dignity.” I replied, “Can I suggest that we get you out of the hall at the first convenient moment?” And then I said, “During the entire time that I've served you as President of the FA, I seem to have spent my time smuggling you out of buildings at the earliest possible opportunity. This will be the last time.” And he laughed.

‘We went in and he was very dignified. I was impressed because it was a shattering piece of news to have to assimilate in eight or ten seconds before walking past the press, who didn't know.

‘At the end of it, I fought my way through to where he was sitting and he said, “I just want to go and commiserate with the Australian governor general.” They were the bidder for 2022 and they'd lost as well, and then I said, “Let's go. Are you willing to give a media interview on the way out?” and he said, “Yes, that's fine.”

‘We'd arranged that if we'd won everyone would stay together but if we'd lost, FIFA had arranged an escape route, but there was a media pool [a small number of reporters and photographers given access, who pool their stories and photographs with their colleagues]. He gave a very dignified interview. Very disappointed for the team,
worked very hard, the team did their best, I'm very proud of them, congratulations to Russia, etc. etc. And off he went. I saw him into the car. I shook his hand but knew my duties with him had come to an end because my contract was finishing with the FA. He shook hands and said, “Keep in touch. I'm really very disappointed for you, I feel very bad for you.” I said, “Sir, I'm really sorry I got you involved in all of this. But I'd like to thank you.” He said, “Please, I've enjoyed it, you guys have done brilliantly,” and off he went.

‘I understand he was very grumpy for the rest of the weekend about the result. He really wanted us to win; he'd been to every meeting we'd asked him to go to and I think a number of people had said to him they were going to vote for England and then didn't. I'm not sure any of us can understand what sort of a person would do that, particularly as he is such a commanding figure: he's pleasant, he's funny, he's a leader, he's tough, he knows his stuff and he's scrupulously honest. The role that he played with us, and a lot of what he did behind the scenes for us, was tremendous. He's been fantastic for football: he likes the game, likes football players, likes talking about it. He's been an inspiring person to spend time with.'

England's failure to get beyond the first vote was a crushing blow but in the previous few weeks, the whole voting system and the propriety of some FIFA members had been questioned by the British media. The
Sunday Times
ran an exposé of alleged bribery and corruption and the BBC's
Panorama
did likewise.

Asked by the media if he felt members had lied to the bid about their support, Andy Anson said, ‘I do feel people let us down, I'd be lying if I said they didn't. People who promised us their vote obviously went the other way. I honestly felt that we had enough comfort, enough people, enough room to hope that things would go all right and we would go through the first round.'

Geoff Thompson said the same, ‘I cannot believe what has happened … The votes that were promised clearly didn't materialise.'

Speaking at a dinner a few days later, David Cameron, who had spent three days pressing England's case in Zurich, said, ‘According
to FIFA we had the best technical bid and the strongest commercial bid and the country is passionate about football. But it turns out that is not enough.'

Cameron also revealed the lengths that Prince William had gone to, to convince FIFA members to vote for England. ‘I met Prince William coming out of one of these meetings and said, “How did it go?” He said it had gone really, really well. I said, “Gosh, how did you do it, what did you offer him? An invitation to the wedding?” He said, “Prime Minister, I went so far I think I offered to marry him.”'

FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE

Nick Booth, who for ten years ran the NSPCC's high-profile Full Stop campaign against child abuse, was settling into a new life in America. He had gone there to be vice president of external affairs for Big Brothers Big Sisters, the world's largest mentoring organisation. As he says, he was applying for his green card and living in a Philadelphia suburb with his white picket fence and the yellow school bus picking up the kids every day, when he was approached by the Princes' office. Would he like to help them both set up a brand-new charitable foundation?

After three interviews, the last of which was with Prince William, he announced to the family that they were packing up and going home. There was a mixture of sadness at leaving friends in America and excitement at being back in the UK. They moved house, schools and job all at once, and he arrived at St James's Palace in October 2010. In the next twelve weeks he made eighteen transatlantic flights.

‘The Foundation had been registered but this was building it from scratch and the chance to put something together from the beginning doesn't come along very often,' he says. ‘And when that is the first Royal foundation of its type in living memory, and possibly ever in the way it's now operating, it's very exciting. Also the two Princes are remarkable in the sense of their commitment to do the right thing and to use their position to change things that they are passionate about, and the Foundation was a really interesting vehicle to do that with.'

The Princes and their team were doing some serious thinking
about the future. Charity work is now one of the monarchy's main and most important functions. And as the historian Frank Prochaska wrote in
Royal Bounty: The Making of a Welfare Monarchy
, ‘Barring cataclysm or self-destruction, the monarchy is only likely to be in real danger when the begging letters cease to arrive at Buckingham Palace.' As its constitutional importance declined, it forged a new role for itself as patron, promoter and fund-raiser for the underprivileged and deserving.

The tradition of a charitable monarchy goes back to George III at the end of the eighteenth century, but it was during the present Queen's reign that it became an integral part of her family's daily work. There are currently more than 160,000 registered charities and other charitable organisations in the UK, and about three thousand of them have a Royal patron or president. The Queen has over six hundred patronages; the Duke of Edinburgh, over seven hundred; the Prince of Wales, over six hundred; the Princess Royal nearly three hundred. The Duke of York and the Earl and Countess of Wessex have fewer but still significant numbers, as do the Queen's cousins, the Gloucesters and the Kents. William and Harry's generation of Royals have chosen to lead normal lives, and aside from Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, the Duke of York's daughters, they have no Royal titles. As the older generation starts falling by the wayside, the number of Royal patrons left to go round will be drastically diminished. Essentially, there will only be William, Harry and their two wives, assuming Harry will also marry in the not too distant future. Even if they were to have four children each in double-quick time, there would still be a gap of twenty-five years or so while those children were growing up, with no more than four working members of the Family Firm in the interim. There are currently eighteen. The existing model of charitable patronage couldn't possibly work.

The whole issue of the future was raised, quite unintentionally, by a question from the Duke of Edinburgh's office three or four years ago. His ninetieth birthday was looming and there was an assumption – erroneous as it turned out – that he might want to
slow down. Were any other members of the Family interested in taking on some of his patronages?

There were lengthy discussions about how the Royal landscape might look in twenty or thirty years' time, which led to two conclusions. One was that it wasn't necessary to become patron of a charity in order to help it – as their support for Help for Heroes had convincingly demonstrated. ‘They wore the wristbands and it just kind of went whoosh. That wasn't down to them,' says one of the team, ‘but they were a catalyst. So they recognise that backing a particular project can have massive strategic consequences.'

They wanted to find a means of bringing about change and making an impact on the issues they care about, but without getting locked into long-term commitments with particular charities and organisations – and thus spreading themselves too thinly between the many that want their patronage. Their ideal would be to remain at one remove and simply give a kick-start to specific projects. Once a project was up and running or had achieved its aims, they could wish it well and move on to other deserving causes. Harry did this very successfully with Walking for the Wounded, a charity that helps veterans reintegrate and retrain for civilian life. He became patron of one of their fundraising initiatives, the North Pole 2011 Expedition, and in April of that year he trained with the team in Norway and then for four days walked alongside four wounded soldiers, two of them amputees, on their record-breaking trek to the North Pole. The aim was to raise £2 million, and Harry's presence ensured that the cameras followed them; their feat was not only in the news but the subject of a two-part documentary.

Dipping in and out was William's preference anyway. He has always been more interested in the need or issue than in the charity per se. His support for injured servicemen and women is a good example. Both he and Harry care passionately about this, having had so many friends of their own come back from Iraq and Afghanistan with missing limbs and other injuries. They know that help is crucial, and although there are a whole range of charities endeavouring to help, rather than directly supporting one or two
of them, and risk offending the others, they have nailed their colours to the issue itself and are backing whichever project launched by whichever charity they think is doing the most to meet this particular need. As one of the Household says, ‘They've done it incredibly effectively without ever being patron of those organisations, and yet I don't think there's a single person out there who doesn't think the two of them have a real passion for the issue of wounded servicemen. But they haven't had to go down the traditional route to do that.'