Prince a rule that he must follow as 'irritating' - as it stops him indulging in his favourite hobby.

The Prince of Wales and his favourite team . The heir to the throne is often spotted in the stands at Villa Park watching his beloved team. But royal duties mean he's unable to make every single match and often has to watch the action with his family at home.

However, the 3pm blackout rule means that matches kicking off at 3pm on a Saturday cannot be broadcast on TV in the UK. The rule has proved controversial as it is meant to encourage fans to attend lower league games, but many have called for it to be scrapped as games in England with a Saturday 3pm kick-off, including matches, are shown abroad.

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And William told : "Getting up to Villa Park isn't the easiest thing for me but I like to watch as many games as I possibly can either by being there or on TV.

"The biggest thing at home is trying to find it on TV sometimes because obviously, you've got the Saturday 3pm blackout which is irritating. But it's really annoying that we still can't watch our own team's Premier League match in this country but you can go abroad and watch any game any time."

In the interview, William also reveals how he fell in love with Villa after being taken to matches by family friends when he was younger. During the interview at Villa’s training ground, William, 42, said: "With the camaraderie among the fans and the chanting and the singing, I just felt like I belonged there."

The prince was at Villa Park on Wednesday evening to see his team qualify for the quarter-finals, beating Belgian outfit Club Brugge 3-0 to seal a 6-1 win on aggregate. Before the game, he said his interest grew when Villa were relegated to the Championship in 2016, a few years after finishing sixth in the Premier League.

"The rise of the smartphone" made him even more invested as it became possible to track and discuss a team’s progress all the time, he added. He said: "I’d grown up looking at Ceefax on the television or the back pages of newspapers and if you didn’t have those to hand you were a bit out of the loop."

William added: "I like going on the forums, I can be on there for ages. I listen to what other fans have to say and give them my opinions. I get quite into it, definitely. It’s important to have that debate."

His children have Villa shirts, among others, but he is not forcing them to support his team, he said. He added: "If I’m home alone with the children, I probably don’t have the pre-match pint but I do have a bit of superstition about where I sit when I’m watching them. If we’re not doing very well, I start moving round the house quite quickly and I put the children in different positions hoping that’s going to change our luck."