Cymru Wales Football Supporters Scarf

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Hughes remembers another galáctico being swept away when Wales played Poland in their final home game before the World Cup . “That night I focused on Robert Lewandowski,” he says, “and after the [Welsh] anthem he just looked up at the crowd and said: ‘Wow…wow!’” We create custom made sport scarves and hats bespoke to your requirements. From as few as 50 scarves or hats we provide you with something unique. Gunter played alongside Dave Edwards who was capped 43 times for Wales. The 36-year-old Edwards now leads Bala against Penybont in a Cymru Premier League game on a rainy Saturday afternoon. As always Bala walk out to Yma o Hyd. Chris Coleman did an admirable job replacing Speed. His empathy carried the squad through those bleak times even if Coleman was in charge when Gunter remembers their nadir in 2012. “We had a real bad 6-1 defeat in Serbia. A major tournament seemed a million miles away.” Hughes, the head of PR at the Welsh FA, asked Iwan to sing before the World Cup qualifiers. He says Yma o Hyd is “a political song, in Welsh, but it has a rousing tune the fans love. It has been quite a journey for Wales, politically, the last 40 years. From the miners’ strike to devolution so much has changed and we now have a renaissance with people wanting to learn Welsh. We’re also trying to reflect that, in football, it’s been a journey. There have been bad defeats and near misses but in the last [seven] years we’ve qualified for three major tournaments. Yma o Hyd and football go hand-in-hand.”

For Gunter and his best friend Aaron Ramsey, the lowest moment occurred with the death of Gary Speed in 2011. Hughes left the BBC, where he had spent decades commentating on Wales games, to join the FAW in 2010. Speed soon took over as manager and in his short tenure he transformed expectations and standards. Hughes says: “Gary brought discipline and commanded such respect. He had a real presence even though he had no ego.” We are manufacturers of quality knitted hats and custom scarves which have a diverse range of uses.Instructing the Red Army to keep their chins up after a narrow loss to England, and entertaining everyone with his parents’ dilemma of whether to watch the semi-final or attend his brother’s wedding in Mexico, Gunter represented the Welsh heartbeat in 2016. He still does in 2022, even if at 33 he does not play many games. After remembering how his parents chose Wales over the wedding, Gunter reassures me there will be no clash of dates in Qatar. Hartley echoes this view: “I’m hoping people choose Wales as their second team. We’re the underdogs, always have been. We’re not threatening. You could say that’s a political weakness or a cultural strength but we’re strong enough in our own skins to support Wales aloud and proud. We’re not aggressive or xenophobic. We’re just happy being Welsh.” Over tea and scones at home, Iwan remembers some of the violent prisoners with whom he had shared a prison cell after defacing public signs written only in English in the 70s. Wales’s official World Cup video carries a harder edge. Yma o Hyd is played throughout footage which splices together iconic Welsh football moments with archive film of Iwan and other activists being arrested in the 70s. Images of the miners’ strike bleed into Sheen exalting “You sons of Speed” and Iwan crying as he sings with the Red Wall.

The final words come from an exultant football commentary in Welsh, when qualification for Qatar was sealed, and the video ends with an image of Iwan’s head filling the screen.The FAW plans to call Wales by its Welsh name of Cymru in future internationals. It is another sign of Welsh pride and, watching Bala and Penybont in a fiercely competitive 1-1 draw, it’s hard to shake Yma o Hyd from my head. I remember the last story Iwan had told me the previous afternoon. Iwan, Hughes and Gunter will feel the same bittersweet emotion in Qatar. The Wales team, and the travelling Red Wall, will listen to Yma o Hyd and Sheen’s speech again and again as they draw courage for their tangled adventure. As Gunter says with a grin: “When my English friends hear [Iwan and Sheen] they say: ‘I wish I could be Welsh.” Dafydd Iwan singing Yma o Hyd along with the victorious Wales squad after the World Cup playoff final match between Wales and Ukraine. We pride ourselves on quality, value and service, thereby building long-term relationships with our diverse client base. The phrase ‘Cofiwch Dryweryn’ – which translates to Remember Tryweryn – has become a prominent political slogan for Welsh nationalism, and is graffitied on a stone wall near Llanrhystud, Ceredigion. It originates from the decision by Liverpool city council to flood the Tryweryn Valley, including the community of Capel Celyn, to create the Llyn Celyn reservoir which supplies water to Liverpool.