Qatar 2022: National team to seek name change after the World Cup

The wait will be over soon. Qatar 2022 is just 19 days away from us, but somehow it feels like a lot can happen between now and November 20, when the FIFA World Cup finally gets underway.

Managers will have to submit their final rosters soon, while some players are concerned about making the tournament on time. For many of them, this could be the final World Cup in their careers.

Meanwhile, Qatar could also see a national team use its current name for the last time before pushing for a name change in 2023. The Football Association of Wales (FAW) has already revealed plans to rename its national teams.

Wales to consider name change after Qatar 2022 World Cup

FAW chief executive Noel Mooney has recently admittedthe federation intends to rename Wales’ national soccer teams to Cymru— the Welsh name for Wales— after this year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

“The team should always be called Cymru, that’s what we call it here,” Mooney said, via BBC Sport. “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.“

Which other national teams were renamed?

Cymru is already used by the federation in internal and external communications,documents, and by staff at the FAW’s headquarters. Wales’ name change intention was inspired by Turkey, who were granted permission to compete globally as Turkiye.

“You’ve seen countries like Azerbaijan, Turkey and others use their own language,” Mooney added. “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.”

Qatar 2022 will be the just the second World Cup appearance for Wales, whose only participation so far came in Sweden 1958. Whether they make more World Cups in the future remains to be seen. But if they do, they may do it under the Cymru name.

How far will Wales go in Qatar?Using this World Cup Predictor, you can see every potential outcome of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.