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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Barry Glendenning

Why bucket hat-wearing fans’ days of supporting Wales might be numbered

A fan in a Wales-Cymru hat.
Permanent markers at the ready! Photograph: Matthew Ashton/AMA/Getty Images

A CHANGE IS GONNA CYMRU?

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Fiver is getting himself in a right old tizzy. With less than three weeks to go until the Human Rights World Cup kicks off, The Fiver’s bucket hat-wearing stereotypical Welsh cousin is devouring Pathé News re-runs of the last time his team qualified for the finals of Fifa’s global jamboree, going out in the quarter-finals of Sweden 1958. Having caused quite a seismic shock by making the knockout stages, Wales were without the great John Charles when they faced Brazil and went down by the most slender of margins, the first international goal ever scored by a young flash-in-the-pan named Pelé.

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