Wales is mulling changing its name to Cymru on the international stage after the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Cymru, the Welsh name for Wales, is already used by the Football Association of Wales in its internal and external communications.<\/p>\n
It is also already in use by staff at the governing body\u2019s headquarters in the Vale of Glamorgan.<\/p>\n
The FAW plans to speak to various stakeholders in Welsh football about the advantages of changing the country\u2019s name in international competition.<\/p>\n
Also, informal discussions have already been held with UEFA on the subject.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team should always be called Cymru. That\u2019s what we call it here,\u201d said FAW chief executive Noel Mooney ahead of Wales\u2019 first World Cup since 1958. Our view at the moment is that domestically we\u2019re clearly called Cymru. That\u2019s what we call our national teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mooney added, \u201cIf you look at our website, how we talk about ourselves, we are very much Cymru. Internationally we feel we have a bit more work to do yet. So, we are going to this World Cup as Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that 2023 will be a year when \u201cwe have a good discussion\u201d with all the different stakeholders, whether \u201cthey are governments, our own boards, councils and decision-making bodies, staff, club and players.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a very open democratic organisation and we don\u2019t just unilaterally decide today to do something like that,\u201d added Mooney. \u201cI will say it\u2019s the direction of travel, but there\u2019s no firm decisions on it. It\u2019s more almost by osmosis that we\u2019re heading towards it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue of a possible name change for Wales was brought into sharp focus earlier this month.<\/p>\n
That was when Robert Page\u2019s side were drawn in the same Euro 2024 qualifying group as Turkey.<\/p>\n
The Turks now compete on the international stage as Turkiye after the Ankara government asked for the country to be known globally by its Turkish name and not the anglicised version.<\/p>\n
Mooney stated, \u201cYou\u2019ve seen countries like Azerbaijan, Turkey and others use their own language. They\u2019re quite strong on it and we spoke to the Turkish at the Euro 2024 draw about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He disclosed that Wales had also had \u201cunofficial\u201d discussions with UEFA \u201cover coffees at different events, sking how Turkey did this, how other countries did that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Welsh added, \u201cWe\u2019ve asked what their direction of travel is, for example, is there a movement towards people using their indigenous language? What I do know is there\u2019s a renaissance of the Welsh language and a sense of great pride in what we do with the culture and the heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Changing its name to Cymru would end Wales\u2019 status as being the last alphabetically of UEFA\u2019s 55 national association members at different draws and meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sit by the Ukrainians all the time and that\u2019s nice because we\u2019ve become good friends with them,\u201d said Mooney, an Irishman who is learning Welsh and has set himself the target of holding a question-and-answer session at the National Eisteddfod next summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we would like to sit by the Croatians and the Czechs a bit more,\u201d stated Mooney.<\/p>\n
(dpa\/NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wales is mulling changing its name to Cymru on the international stage after the World Cup. Cymru, the Welsh name for Wales, is already used by the Football Association of Wales in its internal and external communications. It is also already in use by staff at the governing body\u2019s headquarters in the Vale of Glamorgan. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":226007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"custom","single_blog_custom":"211693","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"single-left","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"floatbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":{"override_bookmark_button":"0","override_show_bookmark_button":"0"},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[49554,8822,49553,147],"class_list":["post-226005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-cymru","tag-qatar","tag-wales","tag-world-cup"],"yoast_head":"\n