Wales is on a high. Whether it’s the unstoppable rise of Welsh language music or the quiet popularity of Mark Drakeford, there is a growing sense of confidence in Welsh identity. And to top it off, last night, Wales sealed its place in the 2022 World Cup after winning against Ukraine at the Cardiff City Stadium. Every one of the players in the Welsh team performed with passion, commitment and that added ingredient that has eluded us in the past: luck.
Football World Cups are for other countries – or at least that’s how it felt until now. Rugby has long been considered Wales’s national sport. But increasingly it’s football that is a source of national pride. All Welsh football fans grew up knowing that 1958 was the last time we reached the World Cup finals; that Brazil are the only team to have ever knocked Wales out of a World Cup tournament; that it took Pelé to beat us. But footage of that 1958 match is in black and white. Wales had only had a capital city for two years before qualifying for the tournament.
I remember the first Wales game I watched aged eight, when Wales played against Scotland in 1981. Wales were worthy winners. The game was also my initiation into the football culture surrounding the Welsh national team. It wasn’t all friendly and inclusive. A series of minor scuffles broke out between Swansea and Cardiff fans, who were more interested in club rivalry than supporting their national team. This was an era when racism was rife on the terraces. I remember when the Wales defender George Berry was racially abused by Welsh fans at the Vetch Field stadium in Swansea.
“Just missing out” was what I, and all those of my age, had come to expect from our national football team. At times, even this felt like an aspiration. In 1982, a Welsh team full of top-flight players somehow failed to win a home game against Iceland, whose team they had thrashed the previous year. And in 1993, Wales narrowly missed out on the World Cup, losing out to Romania after a penalty kick smashed against the crossbar.
The 2016 Euros changed Welsh football culture. The diverse team were managed by Chris Coleman, who is of mixed heritage, and captained by Ashley Williams, who has a Jamaican and Welsh background. On the pitch, the team produced the performance of the tournament when they knocked out Belgium in the quarter finals. Nobody cared about club loyalty, or the fact that all three scorers had been born in England. The squad played with confidence and camaraderie, and even Uefa gave Welsh fans an “outstanding contribution” award.
But it was always the World Cup that we dreamed about. The Football Association of Wales has forged a vision for Welsh football and Welsh culture, particularly through its use of Welsh music. In the Welsh FA’s videos on social media, I’ve been introduced to great Welsh bands, including those that sing in Cymraeg. I first heard Adwaith’s superb song Fel i Fod in a video showcasing the Wales women’s team, while the rousing folk songs of Dafydd Iwan are part of the carefully curated playlists heard before and after matches.
As the child of migrants, I get rather nervous about attempts to connect ideas of belonging with language and ancestry. The decision to screen a new version of Iwan’s song Yma o Hyd by the Welsh drill artist Sage Todz before the Ukraine match was an understated masterstroke, in my view. Racism persists in Wales, and it will take more than gestures and symbols to eradicate it. But FA Wales has decided to foreground its values, and I’m thankful for that.
Last night we sang songs in Cymraeg and English. We applauded loudly after the Ukrainian national anthem and when both sets of players took the knee. Club rivalry didn’t matter. We were one nation together stronger under bucket hats. As Iwan returned for a post-match encore and the Wales squad sang along, we all joined in the chorus of Yma o Hyd. Some people even knew the words to all the verses.
If I’m getting a little carried away, well: that’s what a World Cup qualification can do to you, I know this now. Whatever happens next, this group of players will do this multilingual, multicultural, multiracial nation proud.
Darren Chetty is a writer, teacher and researcher. He is co-editor of Welsh (Plural): Essays on the Future of Wales
