Prince William, Arsenal team up as FA Cup tackles mental health

A royal team talk with Arsenal to tackle mental health - Prince William and some of football's biggest names have talked frankly about tackling mental health ahead of the FA Cup final.

Over a video call the Duke of Cambridge listened to Arsenal's players and coaches discuss the way's they're dealing with mental health in their squad, football community while bearing in mind the Covid-19 crisis.

"I think there's going to be, sadly, a lot of repercussions from this in society, not just in football, in terms of people's mental health," Prince William said.

"Hopefully the FA Cup can be a bit of a pivot that people can rally around."

Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang said it was important to make football an environment where talking about mental health was a strength, not a weakness.

'I think the most important thing is to be next to them, to try to speak a lot with them, [and] to give them all the space they need for talking, because I think the best thing is to talk, and to discuss problems' he said.

Arsenal holds the title for the most FA Cup wins with 13 victories to date.

The prince, an Aston Villa fan, at the start of the conversation joked with Aubameyang about crossing over to Villa.

The FA Cup Final will be renamed the Heads Up FA Cup Final in honour of mental health awareness. The final is provisionally scheduled to take place on Saturday 1 August, 2020.