The outcome is that despite the Netherlands scoring 47 goals in their recent run as champions, not one of their players has broken into the all-time top 18 – an indication of just how difficult it is for a modern-day player to do so. To reach the list, a player needs a total of 10 UFWC goals. Of the current Dutch squad, Robin van Persie has nine, Dirk Kuyt and Wesley Sneijder eight, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar six, and Arjen Robben and Rafael van der Vaart five.

There have, however, been a couple of very minor changes to the list, both involving the goals totals of 19th-century players. Of course, many goals in that era were disputed, and one will never know for certain who scored them. I have, however, used the best (and most official) sources at my disposal!

Here is the current list (please note some of these players have more in-depth biographies in the UFWC Hall of Fame):

1) Gunnar Nordahl (Sweden) (1921-95)
29 goals in 19 games, 1942-47

The UFWC’s all-time top scorer by a huge margin, he played a total of 33 games for Sweden between 1942 and 1948, scoring 43 goals.

The UFWC games he scored in during this period are listed below (holder in capitals):
04/10/42 SWEDEN beat Denmark 2-1 (scored 1)
12/09/43 Sweden lost to HUNGARY 2-3 (scored 2)
07/11/43 Sweden beat HUNGARY 7-2 (scored 2)
24/06/45 SWEDEN beat Denmark 2-1 (scored 1)
01/07/45 SWEDEN beat Denmark 4-3 (scored 1)
30/09/45 SWEDEN beat Denmark 4-1 (scored 1)
21/10/45 SWEDEN beat Norway 10-0 (scored 4)
07/07/46 Sweden beat SWITZERLAND 7-2 (scored 1)
06/10/46 SWEDEN drew with Denmark 3-3 (scored 1)
15/06/47 SWEDEN beat Denmark 4-1 (scored 2)
26/06/47 SWEDEN beat Denmark 6-1 (scored 1)
28/06/47 SWEDEN beat Norway 5-1 (scored 4)
24/08/47 SWEDEN beat Finland 7-0 (scored 3)
14/09/47 SWEDEN beat Poland 5-4 (scored 2)
05/10/47 SWEDEN beat Norway 4-1 (scored 2)
19/11/47 SWEDEN lost to England 2-4 (scored 1)

As is clear from this list, the vast majority of his games were against Scandinavian nations, all of whom were pretty weak at the time. However, if there was any doubt about the man’s pedigree, his record at AC Milan would put that to rest. Whilst there, he was part of the Swedish Gre-No-Li trio with Nils Liedholm and the aforementioned Gunnar Gren. He won two league titles, and was the top scorer in Serie A five times. Indeed, he still holds the post-war record for most goals in a season in Italy.

Unfortunately, his move to Italy, at the age of just 27, ended his international career, and this, coupled with World War II, denied him the chance to play in a World Cup. He did, however, win an Olympic gold in London in 1948.

It is presumably his failure to appear in a World Cup, along with the fact that his career largely predated TV coverage of football, that has cost him the recognition he deserves. Nordahl is a true legend of the game, and a true legend of UFWC.

2=) Hughie Gallacher (Scotland) (1903-57)
20 goals in 15 games, 1925-35

A contender for the accolade of greatest ever Scottish goalscorer, Gallacher was a star of the ‘Wembley Wizards’ side that thrashed England 5-1 in 1928. In total, he scored 23 goals in 20 internationals. He spent most of his club career south of the border, with Newcastle and Chelsea amongst others. Standing a diminutive 5’5”, his no-nonsense approach often landed him in trouble, both on and off the pitch. In retirement, he struggled to find a niche for himself. He turned to alcohol and, in 1957, committed suicide on a railway line.

2=) Steve Bloomer (England) (1874-1938)
20 goals in 17 games, 1895-1907

Steve Bloomer remains a Derby County legend, more than a century since he made his debut. His goalscoring record was phenomenal for club and country alike. He scored 28 in just 23 games for England, and is the third highest scorer in the English top flight, after Jimmy Greaves and Dixie Dean. In 1906, he moved to Middlesbrough for £750, but returned to Derby four years later. He spent the First World War as a prisoner in Germany. He also played baseball for Derby!

4) Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina) (born 1969)
18 goals in 23 games, 1992-98

Argentina’s all-time top scorer, with 56 goals in total, ‘Batigol’ spent most of his career with Fiorentina, although it was to be Roma that gave him his only Serie A title. On the international front, he won two Copa Americas. In 1998, he became the first player ever to score hat-tricks in two different World Cups. He currently runs a construction company in Argentina.

5) Gunnar Gren (Sweden) (1920-91)
16 goals in 22 games, 1942-58

Most famous as part of AC Milan’s formidable Swedish ‘Gre-No-Li’ trio, Gren’s international career spanned 18 years. He starred in the Swedish teams that won gold at the 1948 Olympics, and reached the World Cup final on home territory ten years later. At club level, he won league titles with IFK Gothenburg and Milan.

6=) Anton Schall (Austria) (1907-47)
15 goals in 11 games, 1931-32

Schall was a star of Austria’s 1934 World Cup ‘Wunderteam’ that lost to hosts Italy in the semi-finals. It remains a highly controversial match, with Mussolini seemingly directly responsible for some strange refereeing decisions from Ivan Eklind (who again appeared to favour Italy in the final). Schall won seven Austrian championships with Admira Vienna. In 1947, he won the Swiss Cup as manager of FC Basel, but died months later.

6=) Pele (Brazil) (born 1940)
15 goals in 14 games, 1957-62

Globally feted as the greatest footballer of all time, Pele has won three World Cups, and scored over 1000 goals in his career (although many of these were in matches of very dubious standing). He only played for two clubs, Santos and New York Cosmos. His nearest rival for the accolade ‘greatest player ever’, Diego Maradona, has scored a mere five UFWC goals.

6=) Michel Platini (France) (born 1955)
15 goals in 18 games, 1976-85

Currently the President of UEFA, Platini was French national captain for eight years, taking his side to two World Cup semi-finals, both ending in defeat to West Germany. In between, his side won Euro 84, Platini himself scoring nine goals in five games. He later had less success as the manager of France. With Juventus, he won the Italian league (twice), the Coppa Italia, the Cup-Winners Cup and the European Cup.

9=) Matthias Sindelar (Austria) (1903-39)
13 goals in 12 games, 1931-32

‘The Mozart of Football’, Sindelar was one of the greatest Austrian players of all time. His international career was ended by the Nazi Anschluss of 1938, and his subsequent refusal to play for the German team. A year later, he died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Recorded officially as an accident, there are plenty who believe it was not.

9=) Oliver Bierhoff (Germany) (born 1968)
13 goals in 19 games, 1996-2001

A German hero following his goals at Wembley that won Euro 96, Bierhoff’s best years were spent in Italy, with Udinese and Milan. He is currently general manager of the German national team.

11=) Robert Hamilton (Scotland) (1877-1948)
11 goals in 6 games, 1899-1911

Hamilton spent most of his long career with Rangers, with whom he won numerous honours. Four of his UFWC goals came in an 11-0 win over Ireland in 1901, which is still Scotland’s record victory.

11=) Vivian Woodward (England) (1879-1954)
11 goals in 11 games, 1904-10

Fiercely determined to remain amateur when all around him were turning professional, Woodward scored 29 goals for England, which remained the national record for over 40 years. That’s not to mention the 57 goals he scored for England Amateurs. He twice captained Great Britain to Olympic football gold.

11=) Stan Mortensen (England) (1921-91)
11 goals in 11 games, 1947-50

Mortensen is the only player since 1894 to score an FA Cup final hat-trick, and still the match in question (the 1953 final) is referred to as the Matthews Final! After that match, Blackpool – the club with which Mortensen remains synonymous – did not reach Wembley again until 1991. Mortensen died that very day.

11=) Antonio Valentin Angelillo (Argentina) (born 1937)
11 goals, 1956-57 (approx 11 games, but I am unable to find exact records for his career)

Like many South American-born players of his era, Angelillo appeared for two different countries. He moved to Inter in 1957, ending his Argentina career. He scored 33 goals in Serie A in 1958-59 (nobody has scored as many since), and subsequently represented Italy. He still works for Inter, as a South American scout.

15=) George Ker (Scotland)
10 goals in 5 games, 1880-82

Ker only represented Scotland five times, yet scored three goals on his debut, twice in each of his next three games, and once on his final appearance. In 1884, he emigrated to North America, and nothing has been heard of him since.

15=) Dixie Dean (England) (1907-80)
10 goals in 7 games, 1927-31

Destined to remain forever as the highest goalscorer in a single English league season (60 goals for Everton in 1931-32), William Ralph Dean scored 18 goals in just 16 internationals. He died of a heart attack, suffered at Goodison Park whilst watching the Merseyside derby.

15=) John Goodall (England) (1863-1942)
10 goals in 11 games, 1888-96

Preston went through the entire 1888-89 season unbeaten in league or FA Cup – the only team ever to achieve this. Goodall was top scorer. He then moved to Derby, where he stayed for over a decade. He later played in France for Roubaix, and also played cricket for Derbyshire.

15=) Igor Chislenko (USSR) (1939-94)
10 goals in 17 games, 1966-67

During his international career, Chislenko helped his nation finish second in the 1964 European Nations Cup, and then fourth in both the 1966 World Cup and the 1968 European Championships. He won two league winners medals in his long association with Dinamo Moscow.

In most cases, UFWC title matches are FIFA ‘A’ accredited matches. According to FIFA, international ‘A’ matches are those that are arranged between two FIFA-affiliated national football associations in which both associations field their first national representative team. That seems clear enough, and, usually, the UFWC counts matches listed on the FIFA.com list of fixtures and results.

However, inconsistencies in historical classification mean it’s not always possible to rely on FIFA’s records. By FIFA’s own admission, its records have been sourced from various third parties, and it cannot vouch for their complete accuracy.

This raises several questions, not least of which is, what has happened to FIFA’s yearbooks recording the ‘A’ matches that each national association was required to register? But the main question facing us at the UFWC is, what do we do when a match’s categorisation is disputed?

For example, take the case of two Scotland matches from 1929: Norway 3-7 Scotland on 26 May 1929; and Netherlands 0-2 Scotland on 4 June 1929. The Scottish FA regards both of these games as ‘A’ matches, and lists them as so on its website. However, their Norwegian and Dutch counterparts don’t agree.

The Norwegian FA consider their game against Scotland in 1929 to have been a ‘test match’. Similarly, the Dutch don’t consider their match to have been official because they were still fielding amateur players at that time, while the Scots were professionals. FIFA has retrospectively removed both games from its records, and from its website.

However, crucially, as the games were regarded as full internationals at the time, they remain in the UFWC record books as full title matches. The fact that one or other of the teams may have been amateurs does not necessarily mean that those teams were not the first representative teams of those nations. Many early UFWC matches involved amateur teams – indeed in the early years of football all teams were amateurs – and almost all of these matches remain in the FIFA record books.

So we can accept that there will be some inconsistency regarding results delving back into football’s formative years, but what happens when disputes occur over more recent matches? Take, for example, two matches from the 1995 Carlsberg Cup Chinese New Year Tournament, played in Hong Kong: Colombia 0-1 South Korea on 31 January 1995; and South Korea 0-1 Yugoslavia on 4 February 1995.

Although at the time these two games were regarded as full internationals, they have subsequently been removed from FIFA’s records because South Korea apparently fielded an under-21 side. However, 10 of the 11 South Korean players fielded by against Colombia played in their country’s next match, against China on 19 February 1995. And that match still stands in the FIFA records. So the under-21 argument doesn’t wash. For UFWC purposes, both of these results stand.

Another major headache for UFWC statisticians is when title-holders play two simultaneous matches in different countries. This curious situation first occurred on 5 March 1892, when UFWC champs England played both Wales and Ireland in separate matches on the same day, with two completely different line-ups. So, England despatched 11 (mostly amateur) players to Wales, and another 11 to Ireland. Both won 2-0, retaining the UFWC title for England, and thankfully alleviating the potential scenario of two different nations having a claim to the title. Both matches stand as A matches, so both stay in the UFWC records.

This situation happened again on 30 September 1945 and on 15 September 1946, both times involving UFWC title holders Sweden. The Swedes played Finland and Denmark, and Finland and Norway respectively. Sweden won all four games, again avoiding potential problems in determining which nation ended up as champions. Again, the matches remain in the UFWC record books.

So we’re not going to retrospectively remove games from the UFWC records due to reclassification. But what about cases where errors are found in the records? Take the case of this match: Wales 2-2 England on 29 March 1904. Only, the match didn’t take place on 29 March 1904. It took place on 29 February, as spotted by UFWC statistical guru Peter Waring. Oops.

On 29 February 1904 Ireland were UFWC champions, so the Wales vs England match was not a title match. The error means this game has been removed from the UFWC record books. As it was a draw, and there was no change of title holder or ranking point award, there is no effect on the UFWC lineage or rankings table.

Will there be further reclassifications and disputes? Probably. (And if you spot any errors in the UFWC records do let us know.) But rather than look back, we prefer to look forward. Thankfully we can be pretty confident about which forthcoming matches will be FIFA ‘A’ matches, and therefore which will be UFWC title matches.

Take, for example, a little match taking place on 11 August between Mexico and Spain. Definitely an ‘A’ match. Definitely a title match. Definitely one to look forward to. what do you reckon?

One of the leading goalscorers in UFWC history, he scored 20 goals in 17 title matches.

Having retired from playing, in an unfortunate case of bad timing, Bloomer took up a coaching position in Berlin just three weeks before the outbreak of the First World War. He was subsequently interned for three and a half years at Ruhleben, where he led his barrack to the camp football championship at the sprightly age of 43.

‘Though his activities are now confined to the narrow limits of Ruhleben,’ reported the Ruhleben camp magazine, ‘Mr Bloomer’s skill on the field of play has been a source of inspiration for our younger players and of genuine pleasure to the onlookers.’

Bloomer returned to his hometown of Derby after the war, and died in 1938.

A century on from the original Battle of Stamford Bridge, the setting saw another legendary scuffle. England were still regarded as the best team in the world, but Dr Hugo Meisl and Jimmy Hogan’s Austrian Wunderteam provided fearsome opposition.

The Austrians had held the UFWC title for 12 consecutive games, impressively beating Germany 6-0 and 5-0, Switzerland 8-1, and Hungary 8-2 along the way. Add to the equation the fact that Austria played Meisl and Hogan’s brand of ‘Scottish football’, and this was a mouthwatering and monumental clash.

The illustrated souvenir programme produced for the match (priced 3d) showed the flags of both countries and photographs of captains Billy Walker and Karl Rainer. 42,000 spectators crammed into the ground, and the game got underway at 2.15 in the afternoon.

Despite Austria’s impressive passing play, England prevailed in the first half, taking 2-0 lead into the interval courtesy of Samuel Crooks of Derby County and Blackpool’s Jimmy Hampson.

But, six minutes after the restart, Karl Zischek pulled a goal back for the Wunderteam. Now the game became a classic footballing contest, with both sides drawing admiration from all in attendance.

In the 77th minute Aston Villa striker William Houghton scored a third goal for England. But Austria were not beaten yet. Three minutes later the brilliant Matthias Sindelar pulled another goal back for the Wunderteam. England replied almost immediately, with Hampson grabbing his second goal of the match to make it 4-2. But still Austria would not lie down.

With three minutes left to play Zischek, who scored twice against Scotland in 1930, claimed another brace to put Austria within touching distance of England at 4-3. But that would be as close as Austria would come.

England held out for a narrow victory but, to use a well-worn cliché, football had been the big winner. The game would go down in history as one of the very finest ever played.

Austrian goalscorers Mathias Sindelar and Karl Zischek went on to become football legends, but England’s two-goal hero Jimmy Hampson never played for his country again and was largely forgotten. In 1938 he was lost at sea while fishing with friends. His yacht, Defender, collided with a trawler. His body was never recovered.

HUNGARY 2-4 ENGLAND, 29 May 1909
Friendly, Millenaris Sporttelep, Budapest
Scorers: Kesmarky, Grosz (Hungary); Woodward (2), Bridgett, Fleming (England)

In the UFWC’s 99th title match Hungary became the very first team from outside of the British home nations to take a bite at the UFWC.

For 37 years the title was passed exclusively between England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. England had already played European opposition outside of the UFWC, beating Hungary – and Austria and Bohemia – in the previous year. Now, having taken the title from Wales in March and successfully defended it against Scotland in April, England took the title into a short post-season continental tour.

Hungary were one of the oldest continental international football teams, having played their first international match against Austria in 1902. They were also one of the earliest members of the recently-formed FIFA. They had won more games than they had lost, but those games had been against fellow fledgling footballing nations, and Hungary were no real match for the experienced English.

Sunderland’s George Bridgett scored the first goal in front of 10,000 spectators after just five minutes. Vivian Woodward of Spurs and Harold Fleming of Swindon Town added to the score to give England a 3-1 half-time lead. Skipper Woodward netted a fourth in the second half to achieve the 4-2 victory.

Two days later the sides met for a rematch – and the landmark 100th UFWC title match. England named the same 11, and raced to a 5-0 half-time lead. The final score was 8-2, with Woodward hitting four, Fleming grabbing two, and George Holley of Sunderland also netting twice. The match marked the final international appearance of Evelyn Lintott, the Bradford City right half, who was killed in heroic circumstances at the Somme in 1916.

The day after beating Hungary 8-2, the same team – minus Lintott – beat Austria 8-1 in Vienna. But England would not play outside of the British Isles again until 1921, and the UFWC title continued to be passed between the British home nations.

IRELAND 1-1 ENGLAND, 25 October 1919
British Home Championships, Windsor Park, Belfast
Scorers: Ferris (Ireland); Cock (England)

The first proper international match played after the Great War was this game between UFWC champions Ireland and challengers England. The war had put an end to international football fixtures for five and a half years, and stole the lives and careers of many of the era’s best footballers.

Lord Kitchener’s recruitment drive saw more than 500,000 men enlist by the end of September, but initially there were few footballers among them. However, after an appeal led by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and with more volunteers needed to replace the casualties lost in early battles, footballers began to sign up. ‘There was a time for games,’ said Conan Doyle, ‘but there is only time for one thing now, and that thing is war. If a footballer had strength of limb let them serve and march in the field of battle.’

At first, only amateurs were allowed to sign up but, under pressure to allow all footballers to fight for their country, the Football Association eventually called for professionals to be released by their clubs.

England centre-half Frank Buckley, who played in his country’s 1914 UFWC match against Ireland, was one of the first footballers to sign up, and he was charged with leading the 17th Service Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, which became known as the Football Battalion. Almost a quarter of the battalion’s 600 men were footballers. Among them were former England captain and centre forward Vivian Woodward, and right-half Evelyn Lintott, both of whom played in the 1909 UFWC win over Hungary.

Woodward was one of the Football Battalion’s first casualties, being hit by a grenade and suffering a serious leg injury. Lintott was transferred to the West Yorkshire Regiment, and was killed leading his platoon ‘over the top’ at the Somme. Then Frank Buckley was hit in the chest by shrapnel, suffering lung damage. Comrades doubted their critically injured Major would make it to the casualty station, but he recovered, and returned to the front line six months later, only to suffer further lung damage in a poison gas attack. Another England player from the 1914 Ireland match, Edwin Latherton of Blackburn Rovers, was killed while serving with the Royal Field Artillery on the Western Front. Latherton had scored 94 goals in 258 games for Rovers.

Finally, at 11am on 11 November 1918, Armistice was declared. Many footballers had lost their lives or suffered career-ending injuries. Major Buckley estimated that 500 of the original 600 members of the Football Battalion had been killed.

A series of ‘Victory Internationals’ were played after Armistice was declared, but none of them stand in the record books as full internationals. These morale-boosting games offered a chance for football to rebuild itself after the sport had been dismantled by the war.

Ireland had played two Victory Internationals against Scotland, losing the first and drawing the second, but the UFWC title was not at stake. Although most friendly matches can count as a UFWC title matches, games in which National Associations do not field their first national representative team do not count. So the first full international did not take place until October 1919, as part of the first post-war football season.

Both Ireland and England fielded much-changed line-ups for this game, with only two players remaining in each side from their last pre-war UFWC matches. Michael Hamill and Bill Lacey remained for Ireland, and Sam Hardy and Bill Watson for England. While some stars had been killed or injured, others simply had their international careers cut short by the five and a half year war interruption. Ireland forward Frank Thompson and England captain Bob Crompton, who had won 41 caps, were among the pre-war stars who never played for their countries again.

New players had emerged, some having starred in the Victory Internationals, and the mood was one of excitement for a new beginning for international football. 30,000 spectators packed Windsor Park to see the two sides play out a 1-1 draw.

It was a decorated World War hero who opened the scoring – Jack Cock putting England ahead after just 30 seconds. Prolific striker Cock had just signed for Chelsea from Huddersfield Town, going on to score 47 goals in 99 appearances for the Blues.

Jimmy Ferris equalised for Ireland after 70 minutes. Ferris was with Belfast Celtic, but he signed for Chelsea in 1920, and played alongside Cock. His career was cut short by a heart condition, and he died in 1932 aged just 37.

Ireland retained the UFWC title, but soccer was the real winner. After a period of terrible darkness, international football was back.

The Netherlands retained the UFWC title in this entertaining game, but England didn’t make it easy. In what was very much a game of two halves, the Dutch threw away a two-goal lead, and were hanging on for much of the closing period.

England gifted the Netherlands the lead within 10 minutes, when Rio Ferdinand’s terrible backpass was picked up by Dirk Kuyt, who took the ball around Robert Green, checked back from a wide position, and drilled a shot past John Terry on the goalline.

And it was another England error that allowed the Dutch to double their advantage on 37 minutes, this time Gareth Barry’s poor backpass allowing Arjen Robben to test Green, with Rafael Van der Vaart netting the rebound.

A half-time hairdryer treatment from England boss Fabio Capello – and a triple substitution – paid almost immediate dividends. Frank Lampard’s hopeful punt was superbly controlled by sub Jermaine Defoe, who raced away to bury a left-foot shot in off the post.

Defoe pulled England level on 77 minutes, finishing from James Milner’s low pass.

Defoe and Carlton Cole both had chances to win the game for England, and Wesley Sneijder could have won it late on for the Dutch, but at the final whistle the scores were level, meaning the Netherlands retain the title, but don’t receive a ranking point.

The Netherlands’ next match is an interesting encounter with Japan in Enschede on 5 September. Should they retain the title, the next UFWC title match will be against all-time champions Scotland four days later.

The UFWC scorecast competion was won by Ansgar.

Just 24 hours ahead of this huge UFWC title match, challengers England have been dealt a blow with the withdrawal from the squad of Steven Gerrard. The Liverpool midfielder is out with a slight groin strain (which will no doubt clear up by the time his club begin their Premier League campaign on Sunday…).

Also out for England is Manchester United keeper Ben Foster, injured in the Community Shield match at the weekend. With David James already out, Robert Green is likely to deputise in goal. Michael Carrick may step in for Gerrard.

England manager Fabio Capello decided against recalling Michael Owen to his squad, and also omitted Peter Crouch, so is likely to go with Wayne Rooney and Emile Heskey up front, with Theo Walcott providing support.

For UFWC champions the Netherlands, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Mark van Bommel are already ruled out with injuries, while Eljero Elia and Stijn Schaars are both in Bert van Marwijk’s squad, but are considered doubtful.

The Dutch are likely to field an attacking line-up including Dirk Kuyt, Arjen Robben, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Robin Van Persie.

Fans of both nations will expect their side to have enough quality to win this game, and neutrals will be hoping that the two strong sides do not cancel each other – and the game – out.

Both teams have one hundred-percent records from their World Cup 2010 qualifying campaigns, with the Dutch already qualified, and England likely to join them should they win their next qualifier.

Both sides are ranked in the UFWC all-time top 5, and both are ranked in FIFA’s current top 10. The Netherlands are ranked fifth in the all-time UFWC rankings, with England second, behind all-time champions Scotland. The Netherlands are ranked third by FIFA, with England seventh.

The bookies make the Netherlands favourites. At the time of writing, best odds for a Dutch win are 7/5 at Boylesports. An English victory is 11/5 at Bet365. Coral have the draw at 23/10.

UFWC website visitors had also rated the Dutch as favourites, with 61 percent going for a Dutch win. Predict the correct score before kick off and win a UFWC book.

The match will be screened live in the UK on ITV1, with the broadcast beginning at 19:30, and the game kicking off at 19:45. [UPDATE: In the Netherlands, the match will be broadcast on SBS 6 - thanks Jesse.]

There will be a full match report here after the game.

See UFWC potted histories of the Netherlands and England, and get commemorative T-shirts.

Manchester United quartet Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick and Ben Foster are expected to be involved, but it is unlikely that Capello will recall Michael Owen to the England fold following the injury-ravaged striker’s surprise move to the Premier League champions. Another player who is unlikely to receive a call from Capello, despite press speculation, is Arsenal’s 17-year-old Jack Wilshere, who caught the eye last weekend when he scored twice to help his club defeat Rangers 3-0 and win the Emirates Cup.

Capello will use the Netherlands match, and the subsequent friendly against Slovenia, to prepare for England’s crucial World Cup qualifier against Croatia next month. The Netherlands have already qualified for the 2010 finals.

Who will win? See our prediction poll and scorecast competition.

England have a long and fairly complicated UFWC history – but we’ll try to condense it into not much more than 500 words! The English played in the very first UFWC title match in 1872. Famously, it was a dull 0-0 draw. In the second title match, in 1873, England became the very first UFWC champions.

Both of those matches were against Scotland – the only side above England in the all-time UFWC rankings. England have won 74 title matches (Scotland have won 86), and have enjoyed 21 separate title reigns.

In the early years of the UFWC, the title (and international football as a whole) was confined to the British Isles, first between England and Scotland, and then involving Wales and Ireland. England and Scotland regularly swapped the title, and England gave Ireland two notable UFWC stuffings in 1895 and 1897 – 9-0 and 13-2 respectively.

In 1909, England played in the first UFWC title match to take place outside of the British Isles, defeating Hungary 4-2. England skipper Vivian Woodward scored two of the goals. Right half Evelyn Lintott, who also played in that match, was later killed in heroic circumstances at the Battle of the Somme. In 1914, the English suffered a rare UFWC loss to Ireland, and, partly because of the Great War, didn’t reclaim the title for six years.

Then, in 1927, England beat Belgium 9-1 and France 6-0. In 1930, the English were Unofficial Football World Champions but were not invited to the first official World Cup tournament. In 1932, England survived a tough encounter with Austria’s wunderteam, winning 4-3. Then, in a 1934 match remembered as “the Battle of Highbury”, England suffered cuts, bruises and broken bones during a brutal 3-2 win over Italy.

A 1939 defeat to Yugoslavia, on the eve of the Second World War, hurt a lot more. It was the first time England had lost a UFWC match to a team from outside of the British Isles. After the war, in 1947, England regained the title in a 4-2 defeat of Sweden. Then, in 1950, The English became the first UFWC title holders to play in a World Cup finals tournament. It didn’t go well. A star-studded England team were famously beaten 1-0 by the USA courtesy of Joe Gaetjens and “the shot heard around the world”.

It was 16 years before the English regained the title – but what a way to do it: July 1966, the World Cup final against West Germany, and England win 4-2 thanks to Geoff Hurst and an Azerbaijani linesman. It was England’s most famous victory. A year later came perhaps their most famous defeat – 3-2 to Scotland at Wembley in front of 30,000 travelling members of the Tartan Army.

Another long barren spell followed for England, until, in 1975, goals from Colin Bell and Malcolm MacDonald saw them beat West Germany 2-0. England held the title for six games, then returned to the UFWC wilderness. The famous 1998 World Cup defeat on penalties to Argentina and a 1999 2-0 defeat to France were only missed opportunities.

Then, in June 2000 at the European Championships, England beat Germany 1-0 courtesy of a goal from captain Alan Shearer. That was the last time England won the UFWC title. Can they win it again on 12 August?

Get your exclusive England UFWC T-shirt, and keep an eye on this website for all the build up to the big match.