As absurd as it may seem, the Welsh national team would be in talks with UEFA to change its name. This, once the Qatar World Cup 2022 has finished. According to the British newspaper Daily Mail, the team captained by Gareth Bale would be renamed “Cymru”, the Welsh name for this country.
“ The team should always be called Cymru, that’s what we call it here. Our view at the moment is that nationally we clearly call ourselves Cymru. That’s what we call our national teams,” said Noel Mooney, executive director of the Football Association of Wales (FAW), to this medium.
Along the same lines, he added: “Yes you look at our website, as we talk about ourselves, we are very much Cymru. Internationally, we feel we have a bit more work to do yet, so we will go to this World Cup as Wales.”
It is worth noting that this terminology is already used by the FAW, both in its internal and external communications and by staff that acts at the headquarters of said organization.
“I think that 2023 will be a year in which we will have a good discussion with all the different stakeholders, be it governments, our own boards; councils and decision-making bodies, staff, clubs and players”, Mooney highlighted.
Alphabetically, Wales is the last nation of the UEFA member associations. If it changes its name to Cymru, it would take as an example what happened with Turkey, which was renamed Turkiye to focus on its official language. Coincidentally, these two teams share the same qualifying group for the European Championship 2024.
With a superb performance from Gareth Bale in the European playoffs, Wales edged out Austria and then Ukraine to inscribe their name in Qatar 2022. This is the first participation of this team in a World Cup, since Sweden 1958.
You can also read: