UFWC vs the World Cup: unofficial football heaven
If you’ve been at all surprised by the Netherlands’ charge into the World Cup semi finals then you obviously haven’t been following the Unofficial Football World Championships. Understandable, I suppose, as the UFWC is the self-styled most exciting but least well-known international football competition in the world…
But, if the rise in the number of visitors to the UFWC website over the course of the World Cup is anything to go by, combined with a number of interview requests and press features from around the world, interest in the Unofficial Football World Championships is growing fast. If you’ve missed all this, where have you been?
If you have been following the UFWC, you will know that the Netherlands, some say Holland, are the current Unofficial Football World Champions, and have been since November 2008, since when they’ve been on a record-equalling 20-match unbeaten run. Few tipsters backed the Dutch before the World Cup began, but it’s likely that plenty of UFWC followers had their money on them. Except, unfortunately, for me (although, as a very minor form of consolation, I do have them in the Sure for Men last 16 sweepstakes competition, with a big 50 English pounds up for grabs…).
But what is the UFWC? Basically, it’s a simple method of working out football’s champions using a continuous title match system, going all the way back to the very first international game in 1872. Winners of title matches become unofficial champions, and take their title into their next match. All FIFA ‘A’ accredited matches count, including friendlies. So, when the World Cup is packed away into a box for four years, the UFWC carries on regardless.
It’s all pretty simple, and while 138 years’ worth of statistics covering 800-plus matches involving 40-plus teams might seem to to be dauntingly complicated, in fact the UFWC is all about great stories rather than the actual statistics. The continuous and open nature of the competition means that it has involved a series of unlikely champions and unsung heroes, and its lineage represents a fascinating alternative history of football.
A brief glance at the archives throws up the facts that previous champions have included Angola, Israel, Venezuela and the tiny Dutch Antilles islands, and that Scotland have won more title matches than any other nation, and are therefore ranked as the all-time UFWC champions. But, occasionally, the UFWC collides with the World Cup. That’s what has happened in South Africa this summer, and it’s all pretty interesting.
As for my involvement, I ‘created’ the UFWC around 8 years ago (in that I set up the website and wrote an article for FourFourTwo about it), although I can’t take credit for the idea of an unofficial championships. That idea was probably first properly raised by members of the Tartan Army after Scotland beat official world champions England and raised a claim to be unofficial champions.
Aside from giving groups of fans the excuse to make outlandish claims, the UFWC adds an extra dimension to football, particularly during the ‘downtime’ that falls between the World Cup and other major tournaments. The UFWC never stops, and turns otherwise boring friendly matches into must-win international cup finals.
So, when the Netherlands take on Uruguay tomorrow evening, they will be playing for even more than a place in the World Cup final. They will also be playing to retain their title as Unofficial Football World Champions. The winner of the game will take the UFWC title into the WC final. And whoever wins the final will walk away as both unofficial and official champions and holders of a unified title.
Over the course of the World Cup the UFWC has been featured in the Guardian (not once but twice), and in publications from the USA, Australia, Germany (also here, here and here), Austria, Spain, Greece, and lots of other countries that Google Translate can’t identify the language of… It’s also been fun to watch news of the UFWC spreading in various languages via Twitter (although, with hindsight, they could have been discussing something completely different beginning with the initials U, F, W and C for all I know…).
You can follow the UFWC through to the conclusion of the World Cup and beyond at www.ufwc.co.uk and on Twitter (@UFWC_Football). There is also a book, written by me, which is out of print, but is still available from ‘other sellers’ on Amazon. What the hell, while I’m shamelessly plugging stuff I might as well try to hawk some of the UFWC T-shirts which, like the book, I only get a few pennies out of, but every penny counts, right?
Anyway, that’s the UFWC for you. Enjoy the football.
