2007 saw 12 UFWC title matches, 5 title changes and 30 goals. Here’s a quick round-up:
The year began with Georgia holding the UFWC title. They defeated Turkey 1-0 in February, but then lost the title to Scotland in March, via a 2-1 defeat. All-time champions Scotland only held the current title for four days, losing 2-0 to Italy, who became undisputed Official and Unofficial Football World Champions. Italy beat the Faroe Islands 2-1 and Lithuania 2-0 in June, but then lost 3-1 to Hungary in August.
In September Hungary defeated Bosnia-Herzegovinia 1-0 before losing 3-0 to Turkey. It was Turkey’s first ever UFWC title win. Turkey held off Moldova in a 1-1 draw in October, but then lost 1-0 to Greece, who became the joint Official European and Unofficial World Football Champions. In November Greece thrashed Malta 5-0 and then beat Hungary 2-1. 2007 ended with Greece holding the Unofficial Football World Championships title.
These are the 12 title matches:
21/11/07 HUNGARY 1-2 GREECE EQ Budapest
17/11/07 GREECE 5-0 MALTA EQ Athens
17/10/07 TURKEY 0-1 GREECE EQ Istanbul
13/10/07 MOLDOVA 1-1 TURKEY EQ Chisinau
12/09/07 TURKEY 3-0 HUNGARY EQ Istanbul
08/09/07 HUNGARY 1-0 BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA EQ Budapest
22/08/07 HUNGARY 3-1 ITALY FR Budapest
06/06/07 LITHUANIA 0-2 ITALY EQ Kaunas
02/06/07 FAROE ISLANDS 1-2 ITALY EQ Toshavn
28/03/07 ITALY 2-0 SCOTLAND EQ Bari
24/03/07 SCOTLAND 2-1 GEORGIA EQ Glasgow
07/02/07 GEORGIA 1-0 TURKEY FR Tbilisi
Both Scotland and Italy have improved their standings in the All-Time UFWC top ten. Current champions Greece are 25th in the All-Time Rankings. Here is how the top ten looked at the end of 2007, ranked by UFWC title matches won:
1 Scotland 103
2 England 88
3 Argentina 61
4 Russia 50
5 Netherlands 44
6 Brazil 37
7 Germany 36
8 France 34
9 Italy 30
10 Sweden 26
2008 is set to be another exciting year for the UFWC. The next title match is still to be announced but, with the Euro 2008 Championships and World Cup Qualifiers, plus a host of warm-up and ‘friendly’ games, to look forward to, expect to see a lot of title matches, a few new champions, plus a host of surprises. Keep an eye on www.ufwc.co.uk.
