As the UFWC is based in the UK, and the early history of the Unofficial Football World Championships was dominated by British teams, our new range of T-shirts includes new designs for the UK ‘home nations’ of Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The range also features new Ireland, Japan and North Korea (former and current UFWC champions) shirts, new women’s and kids’ shirts, and updated classic UFWC Ts. You can check them all out at the UFWC T-Shirt Store.

For the record, the UK home nations’ UFWC rankings, based on title matches won since the competition began in 1872, are:

1. Scotland (78 UFWC wins)
2. England (73)
3. Wales (12)
4. Northern Ireland (5)

Scotland has won more UFWC title matches than any other nation in the world, making the Scots the all-time UFWC champions. The Scots were also the last UK team to hold the UFWC title, in 2007. England are second in the overall rankings, Wales are 15th, and Northern Ireland are 28th. The latter’s record includes two wins as Northern Ireland and three wins as a united Ireland team, prior to the partition in 1921. The Republic of Ireland, for which a shirt is also available, have won three title matches.

All shirts are 100% cotton, and they come in six sizes. They start at only GBP12.99, and our friends at Spreadshirt will ship them around the world. For more details and to choose your T-shirt visit the UFWC T-Shirt Store.

UFWC News England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales

England’s win over World Cup holders Spain yesterday kicked off a light-hearted debate, particularly on Twitter, regarding football’s unofficial champions. Some English fans, including journalists and TV personalities, suggested that the win over the official champions made England “unofficial champions”. Plenty of other fans chipped in to point out that, in fact, the unofficial champions were Japan. Many were kind enough to point folk in our direction. So here’s a brief introduction to the Unofficial Football World Championships.

First of all, if you’re new to the UFWC, what on Earth is it about? Basically it’s an alternative way of working out the best team in the world. It works in a continuous boxing-style title match system, where winners of title matches become title holders and champions, and move up the rankings. The UFWC goes right back to the very first international match in 1872, 58 years before the first World Cup. You can find a lot more information in our Beginner’s Guide to the UFWC.

Of course the UFWC is primarily just a bit of fun, and FIFA has kindly acknowledged the tournament as such. But it also fills in that long four-year gap between World Cup finals, and it turns seemingly meaningless friendlies and “dead rubber” qualifying matches into exciting cup finals. One of the most appealing aspects of the UFWC is that the title can be won and lost over the course of every single match. As a result there have been some incredible shock results and some very unlikely champions. You can find lots of great stories form the UFWC’s 139-year lineage here on this site and in the UFWC book.

The current Unofficial Football World Champions are Japan. The Japanese reign began last October with a 1-0 win over previous champions Argentina (the Argentinians having previously beaten official champions Spain). Japan have now gone 16 games unbeaten as UFWC champions, and have retained the title for more than 12 months.

For the record, the last time England were unofficial champions was in June 2000, at the European Championships when they beat beat Germany 1-0. You can read a history of England in the UFWC here. Of course, if a rumoured friendly match between England and Japan in early 2012 is confirmed, England may get the chance to become unofficial champions again very soon…

The UFWC also operates an all-time ranking system, in which teams are awarded one point for each title match win. Perhaps surprisingly, the team at tops the all-time rankings is Scotland, followed by England in second place. This is largely because those two nations dominated international football in the years that preceded the first World Cup. Argentina are third, followed by the Netherlands and Russia. You can see the full list at the UFWC Rankings Table.

The next UFWC title match, this Tuesday 15 November, sees champions Japan take on challengers North Korea. The two sides last played each other in September, when Japan narrowly won 1-0 courtesy of an injury-time goal. This rematch, in North Korea, is likely to be even tougher for Japan. So there is a chance that from Tuesday the unofficial football world champions may be North Korea… The match kicks off at 7am GMT, and we’ll have full coverage right here, starting with a match preview on Monday.

If you’d like to read more about the UFWC, the book UFWC T-shirt too…) And you can keep up with all things UFWC by following us on Twitter or joining us on Facebook.

UFWC News England, japan

Following Japan’s 8-0 win over Tajikistan, our look at the highest scoring matches in UFWC history culminates with this 15-goal Victorian classic.

England 13-2 Ireland
18 February 1899
British Home Championships
Roker Park, Sunderland
Scorers: Frank Forman, Fred Forman (2), Athersmith, Smith (4), Bloomer (2), Settle (3) (England); Campbell, McAllen (pen) (Ireland)

Another England versus Ireland UFWC match, another rout, and another brace of goals for the great Steve Bloomer. But Bloomer’s feat was surpassed on the day by the goalscoring achievements of two of his team-mates.

The venue for this defence of the title was Roker Park, with 14,000 spectators turning up. Sunderland full-back Philip Bach was drafted in to play in front of his home crowd for his first and only England international.

Those in attendance could have been forgiven for initially failing to realise how spectacular this match was going to be – a full quarter of an hour was played before the avalanche of goals began.

Frank Forman, then of Sheffield United, got England’s first, and his brother Fred, of Nottingham Forest, netted the second. It was Fred’s debut, and the pair became the first professional footballer brothers to play for England. (Amateurs Arthur and Edward Bambridge played together for England in 1883, and scored in the same England match in 1884). William Athersmith of Aston Villa hit the third goal, before captain Gilbert Smith and striker Bloomer both netted to make the score 5-0 at half-time.

Fred Forman grabbed his second goal of the game in the second half, as did Bloomer. Skipper Smith, the old-school Corinthians forward, ended up with four goals, including three in four mad second-half minutes. (Smith, one of the greatest amateur footballers ever to play for England, scored 11 goals in 20 games for his country, and was also a first class cricketer – a high-scoring right-hand batsman for Oxford University and Surrey.) Debutant James Settle of Bury also hit a second half hat-trick – he ended up scoring six goals in six games for England.

James Campbell and Joseph McAllen, of Cliftonville and Linfield respectively, scored consolation goals for the sorry Irish. The fact that Irish goalkeeper James Lewis only had eight full fingers (he lost two fingertips in an accident) may have had some bearing on the final result, although Lewis did manage to limit the rout by saving a James Crabtree penalty.

This was England’s second biggest victory ever (after a 13-0 non-UFWC triumph over Ireland in 1882) and, taking into account goals for, the biggest ever win in UFWC history. (It was the first of two UFWC games to be won by an 11-goal margin.) 15 goals represents the most ever scored in a UFWC match, and 13 goals is the most ever scored in a UFWC match by one team.

Unsurprisingly, England went on to win the 1899 British Home Championships, beating Wales 4-0 and Scotland 2-1 along the way. The English then took the UFWC title into the 20th century, before losing 4-1 to Scotland in April 1900.

This is an edited extract from the book Unofficial Football World Champions, which tells the full story of the UFWC via more than 100 classic matches.

Classic Matches England, ireland