Royal Watch News

Prince William tells Ashley Cole off

Oct 10, 2012, 11:01 GMT

Prince William and Duchess Catherine at the St George\'s Park complex

Britain's Prince William told England footballer Ashley Cole he'd been a 'naughty boy' yesterday (09.10.12).

The 30-year-old royal - who is president of the Football Association (FA) - met the Chelsea defender in Staffordshire, central England, where he was opening the organisation's new centre of excellence and he joked with the soccer star, who branded the FA a 'bunch of t***s' on his twitter account last week.

William - who officially opened the new state-of-the-art centre with his wife Duchess Catherine - told the left-back: 'If you continue to be a naughty boy, they will take your twitter account off you.'

Cole's England teammates were all stood around when the prince - who is a big fan of Premier League side Aston Villa - made the jokey comment to soccer star, who was 'embarrassed'.

An onlooker told The Sun newspaper: 'Ashley looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him up. He was so embarrassed.'

The 31-year-old star apologised for his comments - which came after an independent regulatory commission made a damning judgement on his evidence in a racial abuse case involving his fellow Chelsea player and former England captain John Terry - last week, saying he had written the tweet 'in the heat of the moment'.

As well as chatting to Cole, William and Catherine - who was known as Kate Middleton prior to the couple's nuptials last year - spoke to the England captain Steven Gerrard and manager Roy Hodgson during their visit to the new £105million St George's Park complex in Burton-upon-Trent.

During a speech at the centre, the prince also made a joke at his brother Prince Harry's expense.

He said: 'I feel tempted to cry 'God for Harry, England and St George', but I really don't want to lower the tone by bringing my brother into it.'

But William was also on the receiving end of some comical comments when some made fun of him for supporting Villa.

Local Burton MP Andrew Griffiths said: 'There was a lot of ribbing about Aston Villa and whether they are going to have any players in the England team. He said that was not his decision.'