Wales to Follow Turkiye’s Footsteps With Official Name Change Post World Cup

Wales to Follow Turkiye’s Footsteps With Official Name Change Post World Cup

The Welsh Football Association will consider changing the official name of the national team to Cymru, seeking inspiration after Turkey’s request to be renamed Turkiye.

Noel Mooney, chief executive of the Football Association of Wales (FAW), has pushed for Cymru to be the official name since it’s intercommunicated by staff at the team’s headquarters.

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.”

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“Internationally, we feel we have a bit more work to do yet. So we are going to this World Cup as Wales.”

Mooney revealed there would be an open discussion between players, stakeholders, and government officials on changing the team name in the aftermath of the World Cup.

“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,” added Mooney.

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

Mooney cited the changes for the Euro 2024, in which Turkey will be rebranded as Turkiye, as inspiration for his team.

“We’ve also had unofficial discussions with UEFA over coffee at different events. Asking how Turkey did this, how other countries did that,” said the FAF boss.

In less than three weeks, Wales will compete at the World Cup after 64 years of absence.

In the 1958 tournament, the Welsh Dragons reached the quarterfinals.

Led by Gareth Bale, the team will face the United States and go on to encounter Iran and England for football glory.

Source:- Doha News