The Unofficial Football World Championships

As undisputed official FIFA and unofficial UFWC champions, France are on top of the football world. But next UFWC challengers Germany also have impressive FIFA and UFWC form. Like France, Germany have been undisputed champions on three occasions. They have won two more title matches than France and are ranked 7th in the all-time UFWC rankings. Ahead of the France v Germany match, let's look back at the challengers’ record in the Unofficial Football World Championships.

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It has been 32 years since Wales were crowned Unofficial Football World Champions last time and tonight (20/06/2021) "Cymru" will have the next chance to conquer the Unofficial World Championship Crown - enough reasons for our guest author Paul Godding to dive into Wales' exciting UFWC history!

Many of the UFWC goals scored in the past 65 years or so can be viewed online. Watching the goals provides further proof of the brilliance of the UFWC – the competition has provided more than its fair share of special goals. I have chosen my favourite 50 goals from those I have seen, in chronological order, with my top ten highlighted along the way. Some of these goals are famous; however, many are not, and they are a treat for all UFWC fans. The numbers in brackets after the description correspond to the approximate time in the video that the goal appears – in each case start a few seconds earlier to enjoy the goal in all its glory.

As yesterday little San Marino and giants Italy met in the latest UFWC contest, our guest author <strong><a href="https://www.ufwc.co.uk/author/jonnyblair/" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.ufwc.co.uk/author/jonnyblair/">Jonny Blair</a></strong> took some time (and effort!) to reflect on some relatively “smaller” countries who have contested, and even won the UFWC down the years! Did you know that more countries have been UFWC champions than World Cup winners? And it’s by 40. Officially, 9 geographical countries have won the FIFA World Cup. 49 FIFA recognised countries have won the UFWC.

We love the World Cup here at the UFWC, and are excitedly looking forward to Brazil 2014, which starts in just two months' time. To add to the excitement, there's a good chance that the Unofficial Football World Championships title will be contested at the World Cup tournament. Current UFWC champions Uruguay are on course to take the title to Brazil, although they have a couple of tricky title matches to negotiate first. If the UFWC title does go to Brazil, it won't be the first time the unofficial and official tournaments have crossed over. The UFWC and World Cup lineages are very different, but they have come together several times during football's long and entertaining history.