Now This is Cool: Football's Unofficial World Championship

I’ve just stumbled across a real gem of the footballing world: The Unofficial Football World Championship. It’s brilliant, allow me to explain…

The Unofficial Football World Championship is essentially the Ranfurly Shield of international football. It began (unofficially) in 1872 with the first international match ever, between England and Scotland. That match finished 0-0, but England won 4-2 the next year to take the title. As it can only be won by beating the holders those two nations traded it back and forward for a while, before Wales and Ireland got in on the action. The beginning of regular international competition in the 1930s then really saw the competition hot up.

From their website:

“Following UFWC lineage through 900 or so friendly and competitive matches, we can trace how the title was passed between around 50 different nations during more than 140 years of international football. It has been held by most major European and South American teams, plus comparative footballing minnows like Angola, Israel, North Korea and the tiny Dutch Antilles. The title has been contested at World Cup finals and in seemingly meaningless friendlies. It has been won by the most celebrated players of all time, and by previously unknown and unsung heroes.”

A man called Paul Brown has even gone so far as to write a book tracing the history of the ‘tournament’.

Where, then, does the title of Unofficial World Champions currently reside? As of this post it is with the Italians, who have held it since beating the Netherlands 1-0 in a UEFA Nations League match last September.

Nico Barella headed Italy's winner the last time the title changed hands

Tonight it’s up for grabs again though as Italy host Wales in their final group game of Euro 2020. So in six hours’ time, Wales could be the (unofficial) champions of the world.

I think that’s brilliant.