User:Kevin McE/sandbox/ufwc

The Unofficial Football World Championships (UFWC) is an informal way of calculating the world's 'best' association football team, using a knock-out title system similar to that used in boxing and wrestling. The title is currently held by Qatar, having been won from Jordan in the 2014 WAFF Championship final on 7 January 2014. Their next scheduled match is against Uzbekistan on 6 October 2014.

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 FIFA World Cup victory – they were the "Unofficial World Champions".

In 2003 freelance journalist Paul Brown created a website tracking the championship, and wrote a UFWC article in football magazine FourFourTwo. In 2011 Brown authored a book on the subject.

The Unofficial Football World Championships is not sanctioned by FIFA, nor does it have any sort of official backing.

Rules

 * The first team to win an international football match were declared first ever Unofficial Football World Champions. This was England who defeated Scotland 4–2 in 1873 in the second international match, the first having been a draw between the same two nations.
 * The next full international (now defined as a FIFA-accredited international 'A' match) involving the title holder 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.
 * Title matches are contested under the rules of the governing body which they are sanctioned by.

Tracking the Championship
While the tracking of the Unofficial Football World Champions is a relatively recent phenomenon, the rules are such that results are analysed retrospectively to determine the championship's theoretical lineage from the very first international matches.

Early days
The first ever international match was a 0–0 draw between England and Scotland, on 30 November 1872 at Hamilton Crescent. The Unofficial World Championship thus remained vacant until the same two teams met again at the Kennington Oval on 8 March 1873. England won 4–2, and so are regarded as having become the first ever 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.

Ireland won the title for the third time in 1927, beating England 2–0: of the two teams using the name Ireland at that time, this was the team representing the Belfast-based Irish Football Association, subsequently known as Northern Ireland.

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.

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 for all but the last few months of the decade it was held by those four teams. In the 1940s the title was held by continental teams, notably those representing the Axis powers and countries neutral during World War II, 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 remained for all but one of the following 16 years. This time included the four day reign of Netherlands Antilles, who beat Mexico 2–1 in a CONCACAF Championship match to become the smallest country ever to hold the title. The UFWC returned to Europe in time for the 1966 FIFA World Cup 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 the next ten years, except for a one year tenure by Argentina.

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 in their next match, 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 Argentina's 1978 feat 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 UEFA 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 10 September 2003, when they lost 3–1 to the Czech Republic.

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. 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 succession, the unofficial title was not available at the official championships.

Return to Europe
The title was brought back to Europe by Georgia on 15 November 2006. They lost the title to the highest ranked team in the UWFC of all time, Scotland, on 24 March 2007, nearly forty years since Scotland had last gained the title, in the game against England at Wembley that had inspired the concept of the UFWC. Just four days later, Scotland conceded the title to FIFA World Cup holders Italy, and the title passed through the hands of Hungary twice, Turkey, Greece and Sweden before being claimed by the Netherlands, who lost the title to Spain in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final after a run that saw more successful defences than any other reign.

First Asian Cup matches
The European sojourn of the title was brought to an end when Argentina beat Spain in a September 2010 friendly, and after beating the Argentines in a friendly, Japan brought the title to the Asian Cup for the first time in 2011, and remained unbeaten throughout the tournament. Scheduled defences of the title were cancelled after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and they held the title for over a year before relinquishing it to North Korea, ranked 124th in the world by FIFA, the lowest ranking of a UFWC champion since the rankings were introduced in 1993. North Korea continued to hold title through their successful campaign in the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup. Although the UFWC website considered the title to have been transferred to Sweden after a penalty shoot out victory in the 2013 King's Cup, this match was not recognised by FIFA. After North Korea's reign, the title remained in Asia, in the hands of Kuwait, Jordan and Qatar.

Rankings table
Because of the unofficial nature of the title, there are 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 shorter length of time since the title was last held as second and third criteria.

* Including matches won on extra time and penalties. † As of 29 July 2024

UFWC at major championships
Due to the nature of group stages, a team may win or retain the UFWC without qualifying for the knock-out stages of a competition. However, if an UFWC-holding side reaches a knock-out stage, the eventual tournament champions are guaranteed to also be Unofficial World Champions.

World Cup finals
No team has ever successfully defended the unofficial world championship title through a World Cup Finals. The Netherlands have come closest, remaining unbeaten in both the 1974 and 2010 competitions right up until the final, where they lost to West Germany and Spain respectively. West Germany were also beaten finalists in 1986, but the title exchanged hands four times during the tournament.

Chile in 1950, Mexico in 1962 and Colombia in 1994 were eliminated in the group stage but left the World Cup as unofficial world champions.

Continental
The championships of each of the continental championships are only listed when the UFWC was contested during the tournament. The continental championships of Africa and Oceania have not yet seen competition for this title.

South American Championship/Copa América
*: "Extra" tournaments in which no cup was presented, but now regarded as official championships by CONMEBOL

Similar concepts
The concept of such a title is not unique to the UFWC, two similar concepts, with different rules and therefore different lineages, are discussed below.

UFWC Spin-offs
The online community at the UFWC website keeps track of UFWC-like linages confined to each FIFA confederation, as well as one for women's international football.

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. This title is currently held by Spain, who won it from Italy in the UEFA Euro 2012 final on 1 July 2012 and will defend it next in a friendly against Uruguay in Doha on 6 February 2013. Nasazzi's Baton most recently separated from the UFWC at the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final, when the Netherlands were drawing with Spain after 90 minutes and so retained Nasazzi's Baton, then lost after extra-time, conceding the UFWC.

Pound for Pound World Championship
Another similar competition, the Pound for Pound World Championship (PPWC), was created by a Scottish football magazine The Away End. This title only recognises competitive games, although it recognises many unofficial tournaments which are considered to be friendlies by FIFA. As with the UFWC, extra time and penalties are taken into account in defining the winner of a match. It only counts games from as far back as the first FIFA World Cup in 1930, and states that no matter who holds the title of Pound for Pound World Champion they must relinquish the crown at the beginning of every World Cup finals. At the end of the tournament the World Cup winners are crowned the new Pound for Pound World Champions. Therefore the tournament is "reset" every four years. The title is currently held by Spain, who won it when they won the 2010 FIFA World Cup on 11 July 2010 and will defend it next at home to Finland in a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier on 22 March 2013. The title most recently separated from the Unofficial Football World Championship when Spain were defeated by Argentina in a friendly (recognised by the UFWC but not the PPWC) in Buenos Aires in September 2010.

Media coverage
Freelance journalist Paul Brown, who wrote the original FourFourTwo article on the UFWC and maintains the UFWC website, wrote a book on the championship which was published by Superelastic in 2011. Written in English, it has also been translated into Japanese.

The UFWC has drawn occasional media attention as deciding matches have approached.