Hoss Rafaty, the WTF secretary general, has revealed to insidethegames.biz that the governing body is looking to market itself as World Taekwondo [WF] for all business and commercial purposes. However, there are currently no plans to officially change the governing body’s full name.
The decision comes after changes have already been made to the World Taekwondo Grand Prix and the World Taekwondo World Championships, with the decision discussed at the WTF’s extraordinary council meeting in Mexico City earlier this month.
The move is part of a five-point development roadmap which aims to raise awareness and the profile of taekwondo, but it is also to remove any confusion that arises due to the popularity of the slang term, which stands for “What The F***”. The slang acronym is commonly seen on social media and used in text messages.
The governing body is not the first to take measures to change their name, with rugby union, sailing and wrestling all announcing name changes to try and make an easily recognisable name, as Rafaty explained.
The International Rugby Board [IRB] changed to World Rugby [WR] ahead of this season’s Rugby World Cup, while the International Sailing Federation [ISF] become World Sailing [WS] earlier this month.
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