Wales Name Change?

[Super]

Wales' national football teams could change their name to Cymru - the Welsh name for Wales - after this year's World Cup in Qatar.

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

Informal discussions have taken place with European football's ruling body Uefa about a possible change.

"The team should always be called Cymru, that's what we call it here," said FAW chief executive Noel 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' participation in Qatar is only their second ever appearance at the World Cup finals - the other was 1958 in Sweden - but they have qualified for the last two European Championships.

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 the anglicised 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."

[ExiledAjax]

Fine. Whatever. If the cultural region of Wales is allowed to field its own team then the can call it whatever they like IMO.

I'm of the opinion that the team that goes to international tournaments should be a UK team, with home nation teams, if desired, fielded in friendly competitions or in the CONIFA competitions for those odd little regions of cultural identity like Cascadia and Occitania.

Edited October 31, 2022 by ExiledAjax

[Eddie Hitler]

Good.

Wales is from the Saxon term, wealas, for native Britons who were the underclass. A modern translation would be something between peasants and slaves.

Devon and Cornwall were known as West Wales in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

[phantom]

Surely countries are always known in their own language when being referenced in their own country?

But when an English broadcaster is covering them, surely their name reverts back to the English spelling anyway?

[grifty]

3 minutes ago, phantom said:

Surely countries are always known in their own language when being referenced in their own country?

But when an English broadcaster is covering them, surely their name reverts back to the English spelling anyway?

Exactly, we don’t call Spain Espana or Germany Deutschland.

Just as we are not England in these other countries.

[AppyDAZE]

Their heads are so far up their own backsides, these *****.

Funny how they are all for Cymru and Wales being a proud nation and all this bullshit, but not so keen on quitting the English leagues and playing in their own. as they should if it means so much to them to be Welsh.

 

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by AppyDAZE

[GrahamC]

Does this mean they are going to stop picking huge numbers of English players with a Welsh grandparent?

[italian dave]

22 minutes ago, phantom said:

Surely countries are always known in their own language when being referenced in their own country?

But when an English broadcaster is covering them, surely their name reverts back to the English spelling anyway?

 

18 minutes ago, grifty said:

Exactly, we don’t call Spain Espana or Germany Deutschland.

Just as we are not England in these other countries.

And elsewhere they’ll have their own national translations: Galles in Italian for example. I guess there may be languages that don’t have a word for it, so would currently use whatever they call themselves. And maybe it’s more about what’s on the shirt, official communications etc??

At club level, maybe it will give Milan and Genoa ideas….? 

[AppyDAZE]

36 minutes ago, Eddie Hitler said:

Good.

Wales is from the Saxon term, wealas, for native Britons who were the underclass. A modern translation would be something between peasants and slaves.

Devon and Cornwall were known as West Wales in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Don't tempt me @Eddie Hitler Don't tempt me.

Would any of these underclass have any idea about how to use a modern toilet btw?

Edited October 31, 2022 by AppyDAZE

[italian dave]

24 minutes ago, AppyDAZE said:

Their heads are so far up their own backsides, these *****.

Funny how they are all for Cymru and Wales being a proud nation and all this bullshit, but not so keen on quitting the English leagues and playing in their own. as they should if it means so much to them to be Welsh.

 

 

Don’t knock it…it’s the only cup we’ve ever won! 

[exAtyeoMax]

36 minutes ago, Eddie Hitler said:

Good.

Wales is from the Saxon term, wealas, for native Britons who were the underclass. A modern translation would be something between peasants and slaves.

Devon and Cornwall were known as West Wales in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

doing my ancestry, I have found some of my dad's family are from near a place called Wales near Yeovil, they later emigrated to Mountain Ash in Wales.

[AppyDAZE]

Just now, italian dave said:

Don’t knock it…it’s the only cup we’ve ever won! 

We have, but it's not the only cup we have ever won and you know that.

[italian dave]

Just now, AppyDAZE said:

We have, but it's not the only cup we have ever won and you know that.

Ha ha, I know! Though didn’t the other one have Scottish in it?

[WessexPest]

Up to them what they want to be called, although old habits die hard and I suspect even a lot of Welsh people will have a difficult time getting used to such a change. “Czechia”, for example, has never really taken off has it.

No problem with Wales being a proud and distinct nation although perhaps they’d like to consider their own Test cricket team and the Welsh teams who play in the English setup might toddle off to the Welsh system. They’re here on sufferance.

As one wag observed, the name change after this WC will likely not cause too much red tape - FIFA will probably have another 64 years to sort it out.

[Eddie Hitler]

1 hour ago, AppyDAZE said:

Don't tempt me @Eddie Hitler Don't tempt me.

Would any of these underclass have any idea about how to use a modern toilet btw?

 

"Toilet" is actually the Welsh word for "place to be smashed up".

[Lanterne Rouge]

2 hours ago, exAtyeoMax said:

doing my ancestry, I have found some of my dad's family are from near a place called Wales near Yeovil, they later emigrated to Mountain Ash in Wales.

Little village near Yeovilton with a big sign to it off the A303. Eyewell & Wales - driven past it hundreds of times but never been to either.

[RoystonFoote'snephew]

I presume that the direction of travel for the World Cup is East. 

[MarcusX]

3 hours ago, Super said:

Wales' national football teams could change their name to Cymru - the Welsh name for Wales - after this year's World Cup in Qatar.

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

Informal discussions have taken place with European football's ruling body Uefa about a possible change.

"The team should always be called Cymru, that's what we call it here," said FAW chief executive Noel 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' participation in Qatar is only their second ever appearance at the World Cup finals - the other was 1958 in Sweden - but they have qualified for the last two European Championships.

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 the anglicised 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."

Shouldn’t he be referring to Türkiye then not Turkey? There is a difference in pronunciation 

 

[Kid in the Riot]

2 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Does this mean they are going to stop picking huge numbers of English players with a Welsh grandparent?

Thems the rules. Though not sure this is the case anymore? Certainly the top players of the past decade, Bale, Ramsey, Allen, Ben Davies, Harry Wilson etc all born in Wales. Dan James, Ashley Williams, Joe Morrell have Welsh parents etc 

[Tomo]

4 hours ago, Super said:

Wales' national football teams could change their name to Cymru - the Welsh name for Wales - after this year's World Cup in Qatar.

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

Informal discussions have taken place with European football's ruling body Uefa about a possible change.

"The team should always be called Cymru, that's what we call it here," said FAW chief executive Noel 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' participation in Qatar is only their second ever appearance at the World Cup finals - the other was 1958 in Sweden - but they have qualified for the last two European Championships.

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 the anglicised 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."

FAW or FAC? 

[Tomo]

The bloke is an idiot. My Mrs and her father who are welsh, have never said anything but Wales....

[CodeRed]

3 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Does this mean they are going to stop picking huge numbers of English players with a Welsh grandparent?

Even someone who's Dad went on a day trip to Barry Island qualifies for Cmyru !

[reddoh]

3 hours ago, exAtyeoMax said:

doing my ancestry, I have found some of my dad's family are from near a place called Wales near Yeovil, they later emigrated to Mountain Ash in Wales.

Many Somerset people moved to south wales  and worked in the pits

[GrahamC]

54 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Thems the rules. Though not sure this is the case anymore? Certainly the top players of the past decade, Bale, Ramsey, Allen, Ben Davies, Harry Wilson etc all born in Wales. Dan James, Ashley Williams, Joe Morrell have Welsh parents etc 

Ashley Williams qualified through the grandparent rule.

When they won 3-1 in the Euros quarter final v Belgium, none of their 3 scorers had a Welsh parent between them, all 3 had qualified through the grandparent rule.

So do Brennan Johnson, Kieffer Moore & Matthew Smith. 

Farce.
 

[2015]

Time to start calling Italy Italia, Germany Deutschland, Austria Osterrich and Spain Espana I suppose.

They can crack on, they are desperate to get rid of anything remotely English or British in their Country but that's up to them

[MarcusX]

12 minutes ago, 2015 said:

Time to start calling Italy Italia, Germany Deutschland, Austria Osterrich and Spain Espana I suppose.

They can crack on, they are desperate to get rid of anything remotely English or British in their Country but that's up to them

That’s a dumb comparison, what they are currently doing would actually be like us calling ourselves Angleterre.

 

[miser]

After a pitiful World Cup, might be the right time for a name change. 

[cidered abroad]

"Mae hen wlad" etc brings a warm glow when heard in full voice at rugby and football internationals.

I might have been born in Southmead but with Welsh parents, there is only one choice.

Especially when we beat England!

 

[cidered abroad]

53 minutes ago, reddoh said:

Many Somerset people moved to south wales  and worked in the pits

My paternal grandfather was born in Claverham and taken to Wales when he was six months. He died when I was five but I clearly remember him talking to me about his love for both rugby and football. We still have his club rugby cap from 1896 Tonypandy RFC.

[Kid in the Riot]

54 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Ashley Williams qualified through the grandparent rule.

When they won 3-1 in the Euros quarter final v Belgium, none of their 3 scorers had a Welsh parent between them, all 3 had qualified through the grandparent rule.

So do Brennan Johnson, Kieffer Moore & Matthew Smith. 

Farce.

OK, you're still going back to 2016 which is six years ago. I think Wales have a stronger pool of players now. To suggest they pick "huge numbers" of English players is not true. 

Aside from that, I don't really see the harm in countries with considerably smaller populations than others being able to pick eligible players up that would never otherwise play for the country they would "most" qualify for. 

Giving Wales Brennan Johnson, Kieffer Moore and MK Dons Matthew Smith is hardly handing Wales a massive advantage is it? 

Fact is since 2016 they've largely overachieved for a country with a small population that is largely obsessed with rugby.