Wales‘ international football team are considering a name change after the World Cup.
The Welsh football federation wants to call its teams “Cymru” — the Welsh name for Wales — at international level to reflect what it is called domestically.
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Talks will ramp up after the upcoming tournament in Qatar, when Wales will appear at a World Cup for the first time since 1958.
“The team should always be called Cymru — that’s what we call it here,” Noel Mooney, chief executive at the Football Association of Wales, said. “Our view at the moment is that domestically we’re clearly called Cymru. That’s what we call our national teams. If 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. But I think 2023 will be a year when we have a good discussion with all the different stakeholders.”
The issue was brought into focus this month when Wales was drawn in the same qualifying group as Turkey for the 2024 European Championship.
Turkey now competes on the international stage as “Turkiye,” its Turkish name and not the anglicised version.
Mooney said there have been “unofficial discussions” with UEFA at various events about how Turkey, and others, have been able to change their names to their own language.