Welsh giddiness an antidote to World Cup apathy

While the Qatar World Cup may be provoking startling apathy elsewhere, the Welsh football fraternity can be forgiven their giddiness as they prepare for their first appearance on the game's biggest stage in 64 years.

The last time a Welsh team played in a World Cup match, they were seen off by a 17-year-old Pele. Tonight, they take on USA in the air-conditioned Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan.

Accompanying them on their way to Qatar is their impossibly stirring anthem, 'Yma o Hyd' - a rather different affair from the usual jokey, throwaway stuff that constitutes the average World Cup song churned out by their big neighbours.

Written and performed by Daffyd Iwan - folk singer, Welsh language activist, former President of Plaid Cymru, once jailed for refusing to pay a fine for defacing English language road signs - the title translates as 'Still Here', and the song begins with the Romans departing Wales in 383AD. It's a defiant celebration of the survival of the Welsh language and culture under the shadow of their powerful neighbours. Not exactly Vindaloo.

We need your consent to load this YouTube contentWe use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

As has been well-flagged over here, the country's footballing CEO on this historic journey is a Limerick-born former Cork City goalkeeper.

"It reminds me of 1988, when we got to the Euros," FAW chief executive Noel Mooney told RTÉ Sport this week.

"When we got to Stuttgart and beat English... that was an awakening for Irish people. As someone who loved football and thought football was not out front in Ireland, '88 brought us out