An era of Welsh football may be coming to an end as the country prepares to adopt a change of name.

The Football Association of Wales (FAW) is proposing that the national team plays a Cymru, the Welsh language name – after the World Cup.

Cymru is already used by the FAW in internal and external communications and by staff at the governing body’s headquarters in the Vale of Glamorgan. Informal talks have taken place with UEFA about the change.

Speaking before Wales appear in their first World Cup finals since 1958, FAW chief executive, Noel Mooney, said” “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.”

It is understood that the discussions became more serious when Wales drew Turkey in the same Euro 2024 qualifying group. The Turks now compete on the international stage as Turkiye after the Ankara government asked for the country to be known globally by its Turkish name and not the anglicised version.

Other countries have changed their identity to reflect historic and cultural identities. The Czech Republic is now commonly known as Czechia.

Ukraine demands Iran World Cup expulsion

The Ukrainian FA has appealed to FIFA for Iran to be expelled from the World Cup in Qatar because of the country’s support for Russia’s illegal invasion.

Iran finished top of their group to qualify for Qatar with relative ease, while Ukraine were beaten by Wales in their play-off final in June.

Iran will face England in their opening game of the World Cup on 21 November before facing Wales and the United States.

Iran has been accused of supplying weapons to Russia and breaking articles 3 and 4 of FIFA’s statutes on human rights and fighting discrimination.

The executive committee of the Ukrainian FA released a statement on Monday afternoon which read: ‘Taking into account the media information about the systematic manifestations of human rights violations in Iran which could violate the principles and norms of the FIFA charter.

“Taking into account the UN security council resolution 22.31 regarding the imposition of sanctions on Iran, and the alleged involvement of Iran in the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, we appeal to FIFA with a proposal to consider of excluding the Iranian national team from the 2022 FIFA World Cup.”

The appeal comes days after Shakhtar Donetsk CEO Sergei Palkin also called for Iran to be thrown out and replaced by Ukraine at this year’s tournament.