Dutch are UFWC champions, but the British are coming
The Netherlands retained the Unofficial Football World Championships title on Saturday with a 2-1 win over Iceland. The next UFWC title match sees the Dutch take on Norway on Wednesday. Depending on the result of that game, the next UFWC title challengers will be England or Scotland.
The UFWC pitches real international football teams into a continuous series of boxing-style title matches. Winners of UFWC title matches become title-holders, and move up the rankings table. UFWC history dates back to 1872, 58 years before the World Cup. I run the website and wrote a book about it.
The Netherlands have won 36 UFWC title matches. Norway have never won in ten attempts. Should Norway manage to win the UFWC title for the very first time, they will defend the title in a WCQ match against Scotland on 2 August. If the Netherlands retain the title, they will take it into a friendly match on 12 August against England. So, whatever happens on Wednesday, the next UFWC match will involve a British challenger.
Paul,
I have a question for you regarding the UFWC – has there ever been a world cup in which the UFWC has not been contested? E.g – has a former holder of the UFWC been beaten in a pre-World Cup friendly by a random team that is not taking part in the World Cup? In such a circumstance, what would happen?
Thank you,
Miles
PS – great idea!
@Miles Yes, Miles, lots of times!
No UFWC title holder qualified for, or was invited to attend, the World Cup finals until England in 1950. So the UFWC wasn’t contested at the WC in 1930, 1934 or 1938.
After that, UFWC title holders Paraguay failed to qualify in 1954, as did Switzerland in 1970, Greece in 1990, the Netherlands in 2002, and Uruguay in 2006.
As to what would happen – nothing. The UFWC just continues as normal. The UFWC isn’t connected to the WC, if a UFWC title match happens to also be a WC match that’s just a coincidence.
There’s more info on the website and inthe book:
http://www.ufwc.co.uk