January Sale:

Today we’re launching a new selection of UFWC T-shirts to go alongside our popular existing designs. Among the new selection is a striking ‘DPRK UFWC’ shirt for anyone who would like to show their support for North Korea… or more likely just celebrate the unusual nature of the Unofficial Football World Championships! There are also new England, Scotland, Wales and Japan shirts, new women’s and kids’ shirts, and updated classic UFWC Ts. You can check them all out at the UFWC T-Shirt Store.

These official UFWC T-shirts are a great way to show that you follow the Unofficial Football World Championships, surely football’s best-kept secret. We’ve got T-shirts featuring the CW Alcock Trophy and Hughie the Mascot, plus special designs for current and former champions including Scotland, England, Wales, Japan, the Netherlands and Argentina. Oh, and North Korea, obviously. If you’d like us to add shirts for other nations please let us know and we’ll see what we can do.

Or you can create your own official UFWC T-shirt using our designs and your favourite colours or the colours of your team. Just click on your chosen design, and then select the colour you’d like. You can choose from 18 different colours, and there are also white T-shirts available, if that’s what you’d prefer. All shirts are 100% cotton, and they come in six sizes – small, medium, large, XL, XXL, and XXXL (for the ‘Jacamo’ gentleman). They start at only GBP11.99, which is pretty good value, even if we do say so ourselves.

The T-shirts are swiftly printed to order by our friends at Spreadshirt, and are shipped within a day or two. They’ll ship them around the world, too. So you could be wearing your new UFWC T-shirt within days. Just remember to let your friends know where you got it from. For more details and to choose your T-shirt visit the UFWC T-Shirt Store.

Get your UFWC T-shirts, including the new 2012 range, at our T-shirt shop

A new fixture has been announced for current Unofficial Football World Champions North Korea. This next UFWC title match will see the North Koreans play Kuwait on 17 February, in Changsha, China. A friendly match, the game allows Kuwait to make their UFWC bow. The Arab state has never before played in a UFWC title match.

Changsha is the location of Kuwait’s training camp ahead of a crucial World Cup qualifier against South Korea on 29 February. If Kuwait win that match, they’ll qualify for the next stage of World Cup qualification at the expense of the South Koreans. The two sides drew 1-1 (at the brilliantly-named Peace and Friendship Stadium in Kuwait City) in their previous meeting in September.

Kuwait will also play China at their training camp (hence the choice of venue) in a pre-qualifier friendly match on 22 February, raising the intriguing possibility of China playing in a UFWC title match for the first time ever.

As for North Korea, the match against Kuwait represents a warm-up for their World Cup Qualifier in Tajikistan on 29 February, although, of course, the North Koreans cannot now qualify for the 2014 tournament.

North Korea and Kuwait last met in August 2011, playing out a 0-0 draw. They’d previously played each other twice within the space of a week in December 2010, resulting in a 2-2 draw, and a 2-1 win for Kuwait. The two sides have played each other six times in over the last 20 years, with North Korea only winning one of those meetings – and that was on penalties.

Kuwait are actually ranked higher than North Korea by FIFA – 99th compared to 110th. Both relatively lowly figures on the official world stage, but a win for Kuwait would at least see the unofficial title pass to a top 100-ranked team…

Coached by Serbian Goran Tufegdzic, Kuwait played 21 matches in 2011, winning nine, drawing six, and losing six. They scored 29 goals in those 21 games, so certainly seem to know where the back of the net is. (Back in 2000, Kuwait beat Bhutan 20-0 – the biggest ever win in international football, until Australia beat Tonga 22-0 in the following year.)

Kuwait’s only major football honour was an AFC Asian Cup win in 1980, although they’ve also had Gulf of Nations and West Asian Games wins. Most of the squad plays in the Kuwaiti domestic league. Top scorer Bader-Al Mutwa is also Kuwait’s most-capped player, having made 112 appearances for his country, scoring 31 goals. 21-year-old Yousef Nasser has already hit 13 goals in 21 appearances. Kuwait’s goal against South Korea in September was scored by defender Hussain Fadel. We’ll take a closer look at the Kuwaiti team in a separate feature ahead of the match.

So, this new title match raises a number of interesting possibilities. If North Korea win, they will retain the UFWC title and go on to defend it against Tajikistan. North Korea are subsequently due to play in the AFC Challenge Cup in March, having been drawn in Group B alongside the Philippines, India and our old friends Tajikistan. If Kuwait win, they will become unofficial football world champions, and, as previously mentioned, will go on to play China. Could China become UFWC champions? And even if Kuwait could avoid defeat against China, they would then have to defend their title against South Korea.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. for the time being, the UFWC title remains firmly in North Korean hands. Stay tuned to find out whether Kuwait can do anything about that.

January Sale: get the Unofficial Football World Champions book on Kindle for only £1.53. Paperback edition also available: Amazon.co.uk

As 2011 draws to a close, we’re taking a look back at another exciting year for the Unofficial Football World Championships. The UFWC was dominated in 2011 by one team – Japan. The Blue Samurai held the UFWC title at the start of the year, and retained it all the way through until November, when a shock result saw new, very unlikely, unofficial football world champions emerge…

New to the UFWC? Read our Beginner’s Guide.

Japan began 2011 as UFWC champions, having taken the title from Argentina in the previous October. January 2011 saw Japan take their title into Asian Cup tournament in Qatar. The group stage began with an unimpressive 1-1 draw with Jordan, followed by a narrow 2-1 win over Syria. But qualification from the group was easily secured with a comprehensive 5-0 thrashing of Saudi Arabia. Shinji Okazaki scored a hat-trick in that match, and Japan progressed to the quarter finals.

Qatar were Japan’s quarter final opposition, and the tournament hosts twice took the lead, only for the Blue Samurai to grab equalisers, both from Shinji Kagawa. Despite having Maya Yoshida sent off, Japan pushed forward, and, in the 90th minute, Masahiko Inoha pounced on the loose ball to score a late winner.

Japan then played out an amazing semi-final match against South Korea. The score was 1-1 after 90 minutes, and 2-2 after extra time, with Ryoichi Maeda and Hajima Hosogai scoring for Japan, and Hwang Jae-Won grabbing a 120th-minute equaliser for South Korea. Japan won the penalty shoot-out 3-0, with Eiji Kawashima saving two South Korean spot kicks.

Then came the Asian Cup final against Australia, another epic match of narrow margins, eventually settled by an extra-time goal from Tadanari Lee. As 1-0 winners, Japan became official Asian champions, as well as remaining unofficial world champions.

The next UFWC fixture should have seen Japan defend their title against Montenegro in March. However, that all changed, and football was forced to take a back seat following the tragic events of 11 March. The devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan that morning will be remembered around the world as the defining event of the year. Almost 20,000 people lost their lives, and, as 2011 draws to a close, around 80,000 remain displaced from their homes.

In addition to cancelling friendly matches and suspending its domestic league programme, Japan was forced to pull out of the Copa America, which they were due to participate in as a guest nation. Football did return at the end of March, with the Japanese national side playing a charity game against a J-League all-star team – a non-UFWC match that ended 2-1 to the Blue Samurai.

After a hiatus of more than four months, Japan returned to competitive in June, action, and the UFWC competition resumed. A pair of friendly matches, against Peru and the Czech Republic, both finished 0-0. Than, in August, Japan rediscovered its scoring touch, beating South Korea for the second time this year, this time 3-0, with Kagawa scoring twice.

September saw Japan begin its World Cup 2014 qualifying campaign with the first of two matches against North Korea. This game ended 1-0 to Japan, courtesy of an injury-time winner from Maya Yoshida. But North Korea had proven to be difficult opponents. A 1-1 draw with Uzbekistan was followed by a 1-0 win over Vietnam. Then came two much higher scoring games.

Return World Cup qualifying fixtures against Tajikistan in October and November brought 12 goals – all for Japan. The first, in Osaka, was won 8-0, making it one of the biggest UFWC victories in the modern era. Okazaki, Kagawa and Mike Havenaar all scored braces in that game. Then, in Dushanbe, Japan won 4-0, with Okazaki grabbing another brace. Okazaki scored 8 goals for Japan in 2011, making him the UFWC’s top scorer in 2011.

But Japan’s reign as UFWC champions couldn’t last forever. The Blue Samurai had held the UFWC title for 16 matches, over more than 12 months, winning 11, drawing 5, and scoring 33 goals along the way. On 15 November, the long reign came to an end.

It was the return World Cup qualifying fixture against North Korea that changed the direction of the UFWC. Japan had already reached the next WC qualification stage, while North Korea had already been eliminated, but there was still plenty at stake. The match pitted Japan against dangerous opponents, in a hostile atmosphere, and on a plastic pitch, and, despite their best efforts, the Blue Samurai lost their grip on the UFWC title.

North Korea fought hard, and deserved their victory, with Pak Nam-Chol scoring a second-half goal to make the final score 1-0. The match was shown in full on state television so that the North Korean population could enjoy their triumph. As unlikely as it may seem, North Korea were the new unofficial football world champions.

The full list of UFWC title match results for 2011 is as follows (click for match reports):

09/01/11 JAPAN 1-1 JORDAN Asian Cup, Doha
13/01/11 SYRIA 1-2 JAPAN Asian Cup, Doha
17/01/11 SAUDI ARABIA 0-5 JAPAN Asian Cup, Al Rayyan
21/01/11 JAPAN 3-2 QATAR Asian Cup, Doha
25/01/11 JAPAN 2-2 SOUTH KOREA (JAPAN WIN ON PENS) Asian Cup, Doha
29/01/11 JAPAN 1-0 AUSTRALIA Asian Cup Final, Doha
01/06/11 JAPAN 0-0 PERU Friendly, Niigata
07/06/11 JAPAN 0-0 CZECH REPUBLIC Friendly, Kanagawa
10/08/11 JAPAN 3-0 SOUTH KOREA Friendly, Sapporo
02/09/11 JAPAN 1-0 NORTH KOREA World Cup Qualifier, Saitama
06/09/11 UZBEKISTAN 1-1 JAPAN World Cup Qualifier, Tashkent
07/10/11 JAPAN 1-0 VIETNAM FR Kobe
11/10/11 JAPAN 8-0 TAJIKISTAN WCQ Osaka
11/11/11 TAJIKISTAN 0-4 JAPAN WCQ Dushanbe
15/11/11 NORTH KOREA 1-0 JAPAN WCQ Pyongyang

Japan’s long reign as champions has altered the UFWC rankings, with the Blue Samurai climbing into the top 20. The UFWC ranking table for the end of 2011 reads:

Away from the pitch, 2011 saw the launch of the UFWC book, Unofficial Football World Champions. The book traces the history of the UFWC from the very first international match in 1872 via more than 800 title matches, involving legendary teams and footballing minnows, classic finals and forgotten friendlies, celebrated players and unsung heroes. It focusses on 100 key matches, uncovering some amazing stories, many of which are ignored in official football histories. FourFourTwo called the book ‘a fascinating history of football’ and awarded it five stars.

Unofficial Football World Champions is available in paperback and on Kindle from Amazon.co.uk and other Amazon stores worldwide. If you already have the book, you can get a free ‘North Korea’ update here. There’s also a Japanese language edition, available from Amazon.co.jp. You can read more about the book, and read reviews, here.

So that was the Unofficial Football World Championships in 2011: 15 matches, 40 goals, 2 champions. Japan lost the UFWC title, but gained friends and respect. North Korea lost a Dear Leader (Kim Jong-il died in December), but gained the UFWC title. North Korea’s next scheduled match is against Tajikistan on 29 February. It looks like 2012 is going to be a very interesting one for the UFWC, and we hope you’ll join us to find out what happens.

You can keep up with all things UFWC by following us on Twitter or liking us on Facebook. (You can also follow me on Twitter, @realpaulbrown.)