World Cup 2022: England v Wales match LIVE STREAMING

 World Cup 2022: England v Wales match LIVE STREAMING

FIFA rankings: England (5), Wales (19)

If you think the USA vs Iran game will be politically charged, you just wait for this one — which kicks off at the same time as the match between the geopolitical rivals.

The only two non-autonomous countries in this World Cup are neighbours — of the kind where the seat of power of one resides in the other. Since England’s King Edward invaded and colonised Wales in 1282, constructing a “Ring of Iron” of castles to house his occupying army and to project power and control over the Indigenous population, there have been uprisings and rebellions in Wales to wrestle control and return sovereignty to the Welsh.

It is not all ancient history, either. In the 1960s, a valley of Welsh-speaking villages in North Wales was chosen to be flooded, building a reservoir to supply drinking water, not to the people of Wales but to the city of Liverpool.

Musician Dafydd Iwan, later the president of Welsh pro-independence party Plaid Cymru, was among dozens of people jailed in the 1970s for Welsh-language activism. Ten years later, he composed Yma o Hyd, a rebel song describing the efforts to destroy Welsh national identity and its language. Its title translates as “We’re still here”, and it now rings out from the terraces when Wales take to the field. The Welsh language was only officially recognised by Westminster’s Parliament in 1993.

This is the first World Cup for which Wales have qualified since 1958. The Welsh football team play with a dragon on their chest. The Welsh rugby team play with the symbol of the prince of Wales on theirs. The title of “prince of Wales”, by the way, is not hereditary, but appointed by the British monarch, ever since Owain Glyndwr, the last Welsh prince of Wales, led a 15-year rebellion against the British monarchy and established an independent parliament for Wales in 1404.

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles appointed his son William to the role he formerly held. William, Prince of Wales, has announced that, as president of the English Football Association, he will be supporting England at the World Cup. It is no coincidence that the success of the national football team since Euro 2016 — where Wales reached the semi-finals — has coincided with a resurgence in independence sentiment.