UFWC fans can’t have failed to notice that the new Unofficial Football World Champions book is available to order right now. This extract gives a taster of what you can expect from the book, which tells the story of the unofficial championships via more than 100 UFWC title matches from 1872 right up to date. This is how it all began:

MATCH 1 – NO WINNER

Scotland 0-0 England
30 November 1872
Friendly
West of Scotland Cricket Ground, Glasgow
No Scorers

The Unofficial Football World Championships, and the glory that is international football, kicked off in 1872 with this very historic goalless draw – an undeniable anticlimax. Up until this point England had been the only international football side in the world, which made arranging international fixtures slightly problematic. The English busied themselves by playing games against a ‘London Scottish’ side, but appetite for a real England versus Scotland clash was whetted by Queen’s Park FC’s appearance in the FA Cup semi-finals in 1871. The cash-strapped Scottish club drew 0-0 with England’s Wanderers in the semi, but couldn’t afford to return for a replay. Wanderers were given a bye, and won the FA Cup. But Queen’s Park’s gumption so impressed the English FA that plans were made to send an England team north of the border to play an official Scotland side. The Scottish 11, selected by the (perhaps slightly impartial) Queen’s Park captain and goalkeeper Robert Gardner, consisted entirely of Queen’s Park players. England captain and selector (and secretary of the English FA) CW Alcock chose an 11 containing players from nine different clubs. Unluckily, Alcock was injured in a league match in the run-up to the game and was forced to replace himself as skipper with Oxford University forward Cuthbert Ottaway. For the fashion conscious: Scotland wore dark blue shirts with lion crests, white knickerbockers, and red head cowls, while England wore white shirts bearing the three lions crest, white knickerbockers, and blue caps. England, playing with an adventurous 1-2-7 formation, produced an impressive display of attacking football. But Scotland, playing 2-2-6, defended resolutely. The Bell’s Life in London journal described the game as, ‘a splendid display of football in the really scientific sense of the word, and a most determined effort on the part of the representatives of the two nationalities to overcome each other.’ At the final whistle, despite the lack of goals, both sides were afforded ‘three hearty cheers’. Almost 4,000 spectators turned up for the game, with the gate receipts for the day totalling a whopping £109. But, despite the enthusiasm of those in attendance, the first ever UFWC title match failed to produce a winner. Captains Gardner and Ottaway both left emptyhanded. What a bally rotten show.

Charles William Alcock was a football pioneer, the instigator of international football, and – albeit inadvertently – the UFWC. It was CW who, in 1872, decided to send an English team to Glasgow to play a match against the Scots, ‘in order to further the interests of the Association in Scotland.’ He didn’t play in the game, although he did appear and score in a later UFWC match against Scotland in March 1875. Born in Sunderland in 1842, Alcock also created the first organised football competition, the FA Cup, with the first round of ties being played in November 1871. The first FA Cup final was won by Wanderers – captained, naturally, by one CW Alcock. The UFWC trophy is named in his honour as the CW Alcock Cup.

This is an extract from the book Unofficial Football World Champions by Paul Brown. Get more details here.

UFWC News England, Scotland

Another UFWC title mismatch involving a footballing minnow as we wait for the game between Liechtenstein and Spain…

CLASSIC UFWC TITLE MATCH:
England 5-0 Cyprus, 16 April 1975
European qualifier, Wembley Stadium, London
Scorers: Macdonald (5)

England were unofficial world champions, having taken the title from official champions West Germany a month earlier in a 2-0 win. Newcastle United striker Malcolm MacDonald scored his first ever international goal in that game, and ‘Supermac’ would be the star of the show against tiny Cyprus.

The England line-up was full of star names, including Peter Shilton, Colins Todd and Bell, Alans Hudson and Ball, Mick Channon and Kevin Keegan. Cyprus’s star man was captain and reigning Cypriot player of the year Andreas Stylianou, the APOEL striker who boasted a scoring record of almost one goal every two games for his club, but had only scored once in his entire international career. Of the 31 international matches Stylianou had played, Cyprus had lost 29. This really was a game of sharks against minnows.

Tiny Cyprus, with a population around 50 times smaller than England’s, had only played one previous UFWC title match, being drubbed 7-1 by Austria in 1968. They weren’t expected to qualify for the European Championships from a group also containing Czechoslovakia and Portugal, but England most certainly were.

More than 68,000 fans turned up at Wembley stadium for this one. The pitch was typical of many found in England in the 70s – muddy and full of divots, resembling a ploughed farmer’s field in places.

Although Macdonald had scored against Germany in the previous game, relations between the striker and England manager Don Revie were strained. According to Macdonald, Revie told him before the match, ‘If you don’t score in this game I’ll never pick you again.’ Macdonald responded by scoring five.

The first was a header from a Hudson cross. A Keegan pull-back and a mis-hit Macdonald shot made it 2-0 by half-time. Keegan set up the hat-trick goal, too, on 48 minutes – a close-range header for Macdonald. Numbers four and five were solid headers from right wing crosses, with the Cyprus defence obligingly remaining at a respectful distance. Macdonald also hit the post and had a goal disallowed for offside.

Like Steve Bloomer almost 90 years before him, Supermac had scored five goals in a UFWC title match. The scoreboard read ‘Congratulations – Supermac 5 Cyprus 0′. Revie was less complimentary, hurrying off down the tunnel with his head buried in his jacket lapels and his hands in his pockets. Macdonald pointed at the scoreboard and shouted after him, ‘Read it and weep, you bastard’. Amazingly, Supermac never scored goal for England in an oddly truncated international career.

England beat Cyprus again – narrowly this time – 1-0 courtesy of a Keegan goal, in Limassol in the return fixture, but, after losing 2-1 to Czechoslovakia in Bratislava, they relinquished the UFWC title and missed out on Euro qualification. Instead it was the Czechs who took the UFWC title into the 1976 European Championships in Yugoslavia.

Classic Matches Cyprus, England