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Soccer

SOCCER

Wales considering name change after World Cup

The Welsh FA has started informal talks with UEFA regarding the name change.

Kiko Rocillo
Gareth Bale
REBECCA NADENREUTERS

The Football Association of Wales (FAW) has begun informal talks with UEFA to change the name of its teams in international tournaments.

Cymru – the Welsh name for Wales – is used by the FAW in its communications and by staff at the governing body’s headquarters.

“The team should always be called Cymru, that’s what we call it here,” the governing body’s chief executive Noel Mooney 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.

The FAW will speak to various stakeholders in Welsh football about changing the country’s name to Cymru, and have opened informal talks with UEFA on the matter.

“Internationally we feel we have a bit more work to do yet, so we are going to this World Cup as Wales,” Mooney added. “But I think 2023 will be a year when we have a good discussion with all the different stakeholders – governments, our own boards, councils and decision-making bodies, staff, club and players.

“We’re a very open democratic organisation and we don’t just unilaterally decide today to do something like that. I would say it’s the direction of travel, but there’s no firm decisions on it. It’s more almost by osmosis that we’re heading towards it.”

In the draw for Euro 2024, Wales were drawn in a group with Turkey, who compete as Turkiye after the government in Ankara requested that the country be known globally by its name in the official language.

Talks with UEFA and Turkey

Mooney said they had spoken to Turkey and have been in talks with UEFA on making the change, something the FAW hopes to implement.

“You’ve seen countries like Azerbaijan, Turkey and others use their own language. They’re quite strong on it and we spoke to the Turkish at the Euro 2024 draw about it. We’ve also had unofficial discussions with UEFA over coffees at different events, asking how Turkey did this, how other countries did that,” he continued.