So many world champions!

What do the Algerian national team, Chelsea Football Club, and the Florida Gators have in common? At this point in time, the three teams are world champions. Sure, we all are aware that Chelsea is currently the football Club World Champion, but Algeria? And Florida Gators? Aren’t they a College Football (American) team? Well, they all hold Unofficial World title in their respective fields.

Algeria holds the title of the Unofficial Football World Championship, Chelsea hold the title of, not just the Club World Cup, but also the Unofficial Football Club Championship, and the Florida Gators hold the title of the College Football Unofficial World Cup.

But what are these competitions, anyway?

The concept of an “unofficial” world championship refers to alternative, fan-created methods of recognizing a world champion outside official tournaments. These methods usually take the form of singular matches where the winner of each game is declared the champion with the title changing hands every time a new winner is found, like a boxing champion belt.

The first successful version of this kind of competition is the Unofficial Football World Championships (UFWC). Created by the journalist Paul Brown in 2003, the UFWC traces the lineage of international football (soccer) matches, dating back to the first game between nations in 1872.

Other versions of unofficial world cups have been created, such as the Unofficial Football Club Championship (UFCC), which goes back to the first ever competitive club final in the history of football, and other similar concepts that were made for several distinct competitions.

College Football Unofficial World Cup

A couple of years ago I wanted to be the one to trace back every football (soccer, in this case) match to the very beginning of competitive cups and leagues, and even started working on it for several months, only to eventually find out that the good people from Steve’s Football Stats Website (AKA probably a dude called Steve) already did so. And what an amazing job he did!

It kinda sucked that there was already a club version of the UFWC out there, but, as far as I know, there are no versions of the same concept for other sports that I also enjoy, such as American football and basketball. This is where Web Sports Archive enters.

Starting back at the first ever collegiate football match between Rutgers College (Now Rutgers University) and College of New Jersey (Now Princeton University), I have tracked every match, following the unofficial title, as it passed between all kinds of different historic and less historic football programs, such as Yale, Harvard, USC, Alabama, and even Air Force, and Centenary (whose team name is the “Gentlemen”, and I loved that).

Now, the College Football Unofficial World Cup is finally online and I am currently working on the same for the National Football League, dating back to 1920, when the competition was still called the American Professional Football Association (APFA).

When it comes to football, American football, basketball, among others, I think that these kinds of unofficial competitions are a very interesting novel way of following the sports that we love while also learning a little bit about history. Which is always nice.

Historical archives

Florida Gators: history and documentaries
Tulane Green Wave: history and documentaries
College Football Unofficial World Cup all-time ranking