Scotland: better than Brazil?!
Forget Brazil – the Tartan Army remain top of the unofficial world rankings
With five World Cup victories, Brazil can justifiably claim to be the most successful country in football history – but according to one ranking system, they still lag woefully behind Scotland.
The Unofficial Football World Championships were originally unveiled in Fourfourtwo by Paul Brown back in 2003, and have continued online ever since using the system employed in boxing: to become the world champions, you have to beat them.
Given England drew 0- 0 against Scotland in 1872’ s first- ever international, then won the rematch 4- 2, the Three Lions became unofficial world champions, before the Tartan Army bagged the bragging rights thanks to a 2- 1 Scotland win in 1874.
No fewer than 49 nations have now held the title as it has passed from country to country. Brazil grabbed it in 1952 – beating Chile, who had defeated the USA, who had stunned England at the 1950 World Cup to wrestle the award away from Europe for the first time. They may have possessed the greatest side in history, but the Selecao were not unofficial world champions in 1970: that was Switzerland, who pinched the prize from France ahead of the World Cup, despite failing to qualify for the tournament.
Angola, Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Georgia enjoyed surprising reigns after the turn of the millennium, the latter with a 2- 0 friendly triumph at home to Uruguay. North Korea overcame Japan 1- 0 to capture the crown in 2011, then defended the accolade on 12 occasions against such worthy foes as Turkmenistan, Hong Kong and Guam. They eventually lost to Sweden.
The results have been disappointingly more sensible since: after the monumental successes of Costa Rica and Bolivia, Peru began the 2018 World Cup as holders, but France finished the tournament as both unofficial and official world champions. The title then passed to the Netherlands, to Germany, to the Netherlands again. The Oranje’s most recent defence was a 5- 0 tonking of Estonia in November, having fought off two challenges from Northern Ireland during qualifying for Euro 2020.
With a dozen different reigns and 57 wins in fixtures where the unofficial title was on the line, the Dutch sit fourth in the Unofficial Football World Rankings – two berths above Brazil. The Selecao have ruled only once following defeat to France in the 1998 World Cup Final.
Argentina are third in the standings behind England, who have won 73 ties but not regained the gong since Romania beat them at Euro 2000. Cheers, Phil Neville.
Scotland top the lot with 86 wins, although 80 were before the Second World War and 70 took place from 1872- 1931 when the prize remained in the British Isles.
In the last half a century, they have won one of their 12 title tussles, against Georgia in 2007, but it matters not. The table never lies: Scotland are the best team in history, and that’s official. Er, unofficial.