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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Steph Brawn

Wales looks to change football team name to Cymru amid 'Welsh language renaissance'

WALES' national football teams are set to consider changing their official name to Cymru after the World Cup.

According to the BBC, informal talks have taken place with European football's ruling body Uefa about a possible change.

The Football Association of Wales (FAW) already uses Cymru at its headquarters and in communications and documents.

The Welsh men's team are preparing to compete in Qatar next month, kicking off their campaign against the USA on November 21.

FAW chief executive Noel Mooney has said there is no "firm" decision on the issue but insisted the Welsh language is enjoying a renaissance and pointed to other countries like Turkey who have successfully got rid of their anglicised name.  

"The team should always be called Cymru, that's what we call it here," said Mooney.

"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's 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."

Wales have qualified for the last two Euros - famously reaching the semis in 2016 - but this will be only their second appearance at a World Cup.

They will face ancient rivals England on November 29 in what could be a group decider.

In qualifying for Euro 2024, they have been drawn in a group alongside Turkiye, whose governing body has successfully requested its country's official name on the international stage be changed from Turkey.

"You've seen countries like Azerbaijan, Turkey and others use their own language," said Mooney.

"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.

"We've 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's a renaissance of the Welsh language and a sense of great pride in what we do with the culture and the heritage."

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