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Czechia begins its World Cup campaign on Thursday night as part of Group A for the 2026 edition of the tournament.
They'll take on South Korea, and they'll also have upcoming group matches against Mexico and South Africa in an effort to make the knockout stages.
Some fans might notice that this nation is no longer going by the Czech Republic in FIFA competitions but instead Czechia.
And while sometimes a change like this is complicated, in this case, it really isn't.
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Why are they called Czechia?
This was a change first made official with the United Nations in 2016.
The Czech Republic registered "Czechia" with the U.N. as a simpler English equivalent to the name of their country in their native language: Česko.
The nation is still known politically as the Czech Republic.
In common reference, though, they can now be called Czechia.
That change didn't gain full traction right away, but it has been the norm in international sporting competitions for a while now.
So if there's a deep run from this Eastern European country, the announcers will be referencing the magic of Czechia's footballers on the pitch.
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- Lawrence, Kansas has fallen in love with the Algerian national team
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Billy Heyen
Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who spent his senior year following Jim Boeheim's basketball team around the country. His reporting work has also included extensive high school sports coverage at the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. Adventures in sports writing have also led to in-person coverage of the Buffalo Sabres, Cleveland Guardians, U.S. men's national soccer team and a variety of minor league baseball stories. When people ask if he's seen a movie, the answer is usually "No, I was probably watching sports." Even away from sports, his main hobby is running (much slower than any athlete in these pages).
Source: Sporting News
