The Wales football team will consider changing their name to 'Cymru' on the international stage after the World Cup.
Cymru, which is the Welsh name for Wales, is already used by the Football Association of Wales in its internal and external communications. However, the football side are known as Wales by the outside fans, and it has been the case since they started to compete in events back in 1876.
According to PA, the FAW plans to speak to various stakeholders in Welsh football about the merit of changing the country's name in international competition to Cymru. Chief Executive Noel Mooney has explained why the name change should happen given the fact it is known as Cymru in Wales.
"The team should always be called Cymru, that's what we call it here," said Mooney ahead of Wales' first World Cup since 1958.
"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 - whether that 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."
The issue surrounding Wales' name brought to prominence when they were drawn with Turkey in the same group for the Euro 2024 qualifiers. 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.
Mooney added: "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."
Wales head into their first World Cup since 1958 without a win in their last five matches, having last won when they beat Ukraine in June - a victory that secured their passage to the tournament. Robert Page's side face USA in their first group game on November 21, before facing Iran and then England.
