Unofficial Football World Championships
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| Current Champions | ||
|---|---|---|
 Italy |
||
| Current Title | ||
| Won | March 28, 2007 | |
| Opponents | Scotland | |
| Venue | Bari, Italy | |
| Competition | 2008 European Chamionship qualifier | |
| Score | 2-0 | |
| Title Defences | ||
The Unofficial Football World Championships (UFWC) is a novel way of calculating the world's best football team, using a knock-out title system similar to that used in boxing and wrestling. The title is currently held by Italy and the next defence of the title will take place against Faroe Islands at Tórsvøllur, Tórshavn, on 2 June 2007.
The idea stemmed originally from some Scotland fans jokingly asserting that as they beat England (who had won the 1966 World Cup) in a British Home Championship match on April 15, 1967 - England's first loss after their World Cup victory - they were the Unofficial World Champions.
Many years later, a website was created to show results of research triggered by this idea. The website was featured in respected football magazine FourFourTwo, which gained it extra publicity. The FourFourTwo feature also suggested the compilation of an unofficial clubs' world championship.
It is not FIFA-sanctioned, nor does it have any sort of official backing.
Italy's defeat of Scotland on 28 March 2007, made them the first team since France in 1998 to hold simultaneously the official and unofficial championships. Scotland remain the team which has both spent the most time as the champion and won the most matches as the champion.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Early days
| Next Title Match | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | 2 June 2007 | |
| Title Holders | Italy | |
| Challengers | Faroe Islands | |
| Venue | Tórsvøllur, Tórshavn | |
| Competition | Euro 2008 Qualifying Competition | |
The first ever international match was a "rather unexciting" 0-0 draw between England and Scotland, on November 30, 1872 at Hamilton Crescent. The Unofficial World Championship thus remained undecided until the same two teams met again at the Kennington Oval on March 8, 1873. England won 4-2, and so are regarded as having become the Unofficial Football World Champions. Wales entered the 'competition' in 1876, and Ireland in 1882. The Championship however, continued to swap between Scotland and England until March 1903, when Ireland beat Scotland 2-0. Wales won the title for the first time in March 1907, beating Scotland 1-0.
Scotland regained the Championship the following year, which saw England playing internationally. Scotland however, didn't do the same and so retained the title. By the end of 1909, England had taken the title and defended it outside of the British Isles for the first time.
Following partition, Ireland was to compete as Northern Ireland for the first time in 1923. The team went on to win for the first time in 1927, beating England 2-0.
The fact that none of the Home Nations teams competed in the 1930, 1934 or 1938 World Cups kept the title from travelling too far abroad, and the First and Second World Wars hindered football's globalisation process further.
[edit] 1930s-2000
It was 1931 when the title was first passed outside the British Isles, to Austria. It was back with the home nations within four months, and enjoyed the rest of the decade held by those five teams. In the 1940s the title was held by numerous continental teams, but was recaptured by England in time for the 1950 World Cup. Here, in a shock result, they lost to the United States in one of the biggest upsets ever. This was the first venture of the title onto the Americas, where it soon headed south to Chile.
In 1961, following ten years away from Europe, the title came home to its native continent, and Spain. Two years later the UFWC was won by the Netherlands Antilles, the smallest country ever to hold the title, when they beat Mexico 2-1 in a CONCACAF Championship match. The UFWC returned to Europe in 1966 with the Soviet Union. As it happened, the England v Scotland match of 1967, which first gave rise to the idea of an unofficial world championship, really was a UFWC title match. The title stayed in Europe until 1978, when it was taken by Argentina's 1978 World Cup winning side. It remained in South America until the 1982 World Cup where Peru lost to Poland. The UFWC remained in Europe for a decade.
In 1992, the title returned to the United States and then was held for one match by Australia, and then worked its way through several South American nations, back through Europe and to its first Asian holders, South Korea. The Koreans lost the title to Yugoslavia at the first time of asking, and the UFWC remained in Europe until March 1998 when Germany lost it to Brazil in a friendly. Argentina then defeated Brazil in a friendly to carry the UFWC into the 1998 World Cup.
France repeated the feat of Argentina in 1978 by taking the title as they won the World Cup on home turf, beating Brazil. England took the title for the last time to date at Euro 2000. France and Spain enjoyed spells as champions before the Netherlands won the title in March 2002. As the Dutch had failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, the UFWC was, unusually, not at stake at the official World Cup. The Netherlands retained the title until September 10, 2003, when they lost 3-1 to the Czech Republic.
[edit] Full globalisation
The Czechs defended their title a few times, before losing it to the Republic of Ireland in a friendly. The title then went to an African nation for the first time, as they lost it to Nigeria. Minnows Angola won and kept this title through late 2004 and early 2005. They were then beaten by Zimbabwe, who held the title for six months before Nigeria re-gained it in October 2005. Nigeria were beaten by Romania who lost it to Uruguay within six months. Uruguay became the highest ranked team to hold the title since 2004, but their failure to qualify for the World Cup finals meant that, for the second time in a row, the unofficial title was not available at the official championships.
[edit] Return to Europe
The title was won by Georgia on 15 November 2006, who retained it in friendlies to bring the title back to Europe and the qualifying tournament for the 2008 European Championship. They lost the title to the highest ranked team in the UWFC of all time, Scotland, on March 24, 2007, nearly forty years since Scotland had last gained the title, in the game against England at Wembley that had inspired the competition. Just four days later, Scotland conceded the title to FIFA World Cup holders Italy.
[edit] Rankings table
Because of the unofficial nature of the title, there is no authoritative criteria for ranking the historical holders of the title. The UFWC website sorts teams by how many championship deciding matches they have won: others have used cumulative length of time holding the title, a points system for matches won, drawn and lost, or other methods.
This table ranks the teams according to the number of matches that they have started as title holders, and in the event of a tie, uses cumulative days as title holder and then length of time since the title was last held as second and third criteria.
| Rank | Country | Matches as champion |
Days as champion |
Reigns as champion |
Title matches won* |
Title last held YYYY-MM-DD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Scotland |
103 | 13,003 | 20 | 86 | 2007-03-28 |
| 2 |  England |
88 | 7,506 | 21 | 74 | 2000-06-20 |
| 3 |  Argentina |
61 | 2,443 | 10 | 50 | 1998-07-04 |
| 4 |  Russia[1] |
50 | 1,580 | 6 | 41 | 2000-02-23 |
| 5 |  Netherlands |
44 | 1,700 | 8 | 32 | 2003-09-10 |
| 6 |  Brazil |
37 | 1,251 | 7 | 29 | 1988-04-29 |
| 7 |  Germany[2] |
36 | 1,198 | 9 | 27 | 2000-06-17 |
| 8 |  France |
34 | 1,333 | 6 | 25 | 2001-03-28 |
| 9 | Italy |
27 | 855 †[3] | 9 | 25 | Current holders |
| 10 |  Sweden |
26 | 1,435 | 5 | 25 | 1989-06-14 |
| 11 |  Czech Republic[4] |
23 | 648 | 5 | 15 | 2004-03-31 |
| 12 |  Spain |
21 | 1,198 | 4 | 15 | 2002-03-27 |
| 13 |  Hungary |
21 | 1,008 | 5 | 14 | 1972-01-12 |
| 14 |  Uruguay |
20 | 1,031 | 6 | 16 | 2006-11-15 |
| 15 |  Switzerland |
14 | 1,124 | 7 | 9 | 1994-06-26 |
| 16 |  Austria |
14 | 816 | 2 | 12 | 1968-06-16 |
| 17 |  Wales |
13 | 1,821 | 8 | 12 | 1988-09-14 |
| 18 |  Colombia |
13 | 1,109 | 3 | 8 | 1995-01-31 |
| 19 |  Chile |
13 | 1,066 | 4 | 11 | 1982-03-30 |
| 20 |  Paraguay |
11 | 452 | 2 | 7 | 1979-12-05 |
| 21 |  Peru |
11 | 308 | 4 | 7 | 1982-06-22 |
| 22 |  Romania |
10 | 269 | 4 | 8 | 2006-05-23 |
| 23 |  Bulgaria |
9 | 422 | 3 | 6 | 1985-09-04 |
| 24 |  Northern Ireland[5] |
8 | 2,709 | 4 | 5 | 1933-10-14 |
| 25 |  Angola |
8 | 280 | 1 | 7 | 2005-03-27 |
| 26 |  Zimbabwe |
8 | 195 | 1 | 7 | 2005-10-08 |
| 27 |  Belgium |
7 | 188 | 4 | 5 | 1990-01-17 |
| 28 |  Greece |
6 | 308 | 1 | 5 | 1990-11-21 |
| 29 |  Costa Rica |
6 | 160 | 1 | 5 | 1963 09-04 |
| 30 |  Serbia[6] |
5 | 144 | 3 | 5 | 1995-05-31 |
| 31 |  Republic of Ireland |
5 | 122 | 2 | 3 | 2004-05-29 |
| 32 |  Bolivia |
5 | 55 | 3 | 5 | 1994-04-20 |
| 33 |  Poland |
5 | 41 | 2 | 4 | 1989-05-07 |
| 34 |  Nigeria |
4 | 61 | 2 | 4 | 2005-11-16 |
| 35 |  Portugal |
3 | 314 | 2 | 2 | 1992-06-04 |
| 36 |  Denmark |
3 | 75 | 2 | 3 | 1989-08-23 |
| 37 |  Ecuador |
3 | 63 | 1 | 2 | 1965-08-22 |
| 38 |  USA |
3 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 1992-06-14 |
| 39 |  Georgia |
2 | 129 | 1 | 2 | 2007-03-24 |
| 40 |  Israel |
2 | 63 | 1 | 1 | 2000-04-26 |
| 41 |  Mexico |
1 | 290 | 1 | 1 | 1963-03-24 |
| 42 |  Venezuela |
1 | 21 | 1 | 1 | 2006-10-18 |
| 43 |  Korea Republic |
1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1995-02-04 |
| 44 |  Australia |
1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1992-06-18 |
| 45 |  Netherlands Antilles |
1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1963-03-28 |
*: Including matches won on extra time and penalties.
† As of 28th March 2007
[edit] Rules
- The first team to win an international football match were declared first ever Football World Champions.
- The next match this team competes in is considered a title match, with the winners taking the title.
- In the event of a title match being a draw, the current holders of the title remain champions. UFWC title matches are decided by their ultimate outcome, including extra time and penalties.
- The title is passed on like so, with any sanctioned match involving a title holder being considered a title match.
- Title matches are contested under the rules of the governing body which they are sanctioned by.
[edit] Nasazzi's Baton
A similar virtual title, Nasazzi's Baton, traces the "championship" from the first World Cup winners Uruguay, after whose captain it is named. Nasazzi's Baton follows the same rules as the UFWC, except that it treats all matches according to their result after 90 minutes. Italy are the current holders of this title as well as the UFWC, the two titles having most recently been united when Netherlands, the UFWC holders, beat Nasazzi's baton champions Norway 1-0 in Oslo in a friendly on 21 August 2002.
[edit] Virtual World Championship
Another virtual title, the Virtual World Championship, operates along the same boxing-style lines but only counts matches in FIFA-recognised championships and their qualifying stages. This is to circumvent the criticism of the UFWC that because countries do not always play their strongest teams in non-competitive matches, the honour could be unwittingly lost by a sub-strength team. This title is traced from the 1908 Olympic final. Olympic competitions since 1936 are not considered, as full international teams ceased to take part after that tournament. The honour is currently held by Argentina, who won it from Côte d'Ivoire at the World Cup on 10 June 2006 and will next defend it against the United States at the Copa América on 28 June 2007. The Virtual World Championship treats all matches according to their result after 90 minutes.
[edit] Criticisms
There are several potential criticisms of the Unofficial Football World Championships:
- Title matches are infrequent, and even then the nature of qualifying groups means that the title may remain on the same continent for quite long periods.
- It is possible for weak teams to attain (and then retain) the title.
- As the tournament is not sanctioned by FIFA or any other football governing body, this Championship has no real status. (FIFA have, however, said they have no objection to the UFWC and sent its promoters their best wishes as long as they respect the laws of the game, sportsmanship and fair play.)[7]
- Many teams do not play their strongest teams in non-competitive matches, and the honour could be unwittingly lost by a sub-strength team (as happened to Nigeria in November 2005).
- There is no trophy, although the UFWC's promoters are hoping to rectify this.
- There is sometimes dispute over which matches are to be considered full internationals, and therefore whether the title should be considered under contention in a game. Some observers, including RSSSF and WPFC, do not consider a match in January 1995, in which South Korea defeated title holders Colombia, to be a full international, and so plot a different route for the honour from that game until June 1996, when the two routes reconverge.
[edit] References
- ^ Russia's statistics include figures for the Soviet Union before 1990
- ^ Germany's statistics include figures for West Germany 1945-1990
- ^ Italy's next defence will be on 2nd June 2007, by which time they will have held the title for 66 days in this reign, and a cumulative total of 921 days
- ^ Czech Republic's statistics include figures for Czechoslovakia before 1990
- ^ Northern Ireland's statistics include figures for Ireland before 1921
- ^ Serbia has never held the title in its own right, but is credited by FIFA with the records of the national teams of Kingdom of Yugoslavia (title holders in 1939), SFR Yugoslavia (holders in 1984) and FR Yugoslavia (holders in 1995)
- ^ [1]
