UFEC (Unofficial Football European Championships)

[thoppedo]

The thread "Summary of all world and continental titles" by user petewaring doesn't seem to be up2date, so I decided to open an extra thread for the UFEC.

pete wrote in his last summary:
"Men’s European championship. Switzerland spent nearly two years
as European champions. In 2013-14, they saw off Iceland, Norway, Albania
and Slovenia in World Cup qualifiers, and Croatia in a friendly, and
then headed for Brazil. In the World Cup, their run finally came to an
end with a spectacular 5-2 defeat by France. The French lost their first
defence in the World Cup quarter-finals against Germany. The
Germans’ next fixture against European opposition comes in the Euro 2016
qualifiers against Scotland in Dortmund in September."

So if he is right, then the UFEC developed this way:

Germany:

	7. Sep. 2014	2:1	Schottland	H
	11. Okt. 2014	0:2	Polen	A

Poland:

	14. Okt. 2014	2:2 (1:1)	Schottland	H
	14. Nov. 2014	4:0 (0:0)	Georgien	A
	18. Nov. 2014	2:2 (1:1)	Schweiz	H
	29. Mär. 2015	1:1 (1:0)	Irland	A
	13. Juni 2015	4:0 (1:0)	Georgien	H
	16. Juni 2015	0:0	Griechenland	H
	4. Sep. 2015	1:3 (0:2)	Deutschland	A

Germany:

	7. Sep. 2015	3:2	Schottland	A	Glasgow (SCO), Hampden Park
	8. Okt. 2015	0:1	Irland	A	Dublin (IRL), Aviva Stadium

Ireland:

11. Okt. 2015

1:2

Polen

A

Poland:

	13. Nov. 2015	4:2 (0:1)	Island	H
	17. Nov. 2015	3:1 (2:1)	Tschechien	H
	23. Mär. 2016	1:0 (0:0)	Serbien	H
	26. Mär. 2016	5:0 (3:0)	Finnland	H
	1. Juni 2016	1:2 (0:1)	Niederlande	H

Netherlands:

	04.06.2016	Österreich	2:0		A
	01.09.2016	Griechenland			H

If this is correct, the Netherlands will retain the title until September, because they do not compete at the European Championships in France.

Could anybody check if my research is right? That would be nice.

[footballholic]

I checked all the results from the beginning and and now the UFEC title holders are Greece. They won surprisingly 3 days ago in a friendly against Holand. Now they are going to play with Gibraltar, Cyprus, Estonia... Neither of these 3 teams have been the UFEC champions so we will either going to have an interesting new champ, or Greece will retain the title for a long time. It's interesting that Greece finished last in their group in the qualification for the Euro, even after Faroe islands, and their coach at that time was ... Claudio Ranieri.
You just gotta love football...
Other interesting thing is that for a 4th consecutive Euro the UEFC champion didn't play in the finals. 2004 - Ireland, 2008 - Israel, 2012 - Romania and 2016 - Holand.
I will follow this title with a great pleasure and I'll be happy if there are other interested in it.
Unofficial European champions by title reigns -
England - 22
Scotland - 19
Germany - 16
Sweden, France - 11
Switzerland - 10
Italy - 9
and many others...

[footballholic]

We have a new champion !
For the 1st time ever Belarus became Unofficial Football European Champion by defeating Greece in a (seeemingly meaningless) friendly on Wednesday. Greece had a decent run as a a champion defeating Gibraltar, Cyprus and Estonia but now it's all over for them. Belarus are in a qualification group with France and Holand so the title can go back to a more successful team soon but their first title defence is against Bulgaria on Sunday, 13th November. The winner of that match will enter the new year as a Unofficial Football European Champion.

[footballholic]

We have a new champion ! Bulgaria became UFEC champions for the 6th time and for the first since 1985. It was their first title match since 1994 at the World Cup. Belarus's reign as champions lasted only for 4 days.
This means that Bulgaria entered 2017 as the Unofficial Football European Champions. Their first title defence is against the Netherlands in March.

[brazikowski]

So next UFEC match will be Bulgaria vs Netherlands on 25th March 2017.

[brazikowski]

I hope I am not stepping in here too much, but:

With a sensational 2:0 win over the Netherlands yesterday, Bulgaria not only defended the Unofficial European Footbal Championship, but also keeps all chances alive to qualify for the World Cup 2018 in Russia.

UNOFFICIAL CHAMPIONS MEN's | EUROPE

BULGARIA

Next match:

09/06/2017 Belarus vs Bulgaria

[brazikowski]

We have a new Unofficial European Champion!

Yesterday Belarus won back the title from Bulgaria with a 2-1 win (scoring the winner at 90+1' !) yesterday (9th June 2017)

09/06/2017 Belarus - Bulgaria 2-1

UNOFFICIAL CHAMPIONS MEN's | EUROPE

BELARUS

Next Match:

31/08/2017 Luxembourg vs. Belarus

[footballholic]

We have a new Unofficial European Champions !

Luxembourg shocked everybody by clinching the victory yesterday 31.08.17 at home against the champions Belarus with a 1-0. This is the most surpsprising result in the whole 145-year history of this competition! It can only be compared to Dutch Antilles' win against Mexico in 1963 for the UFWC. Luxembourg played their first title match in 1951 and now 66 years later it's finally their time. They became the 35th country in Europe to hold the title. That's what great about this competition. Anybody can be champions. They just have to wait for the right moment and take advantage of it. That's what Luxembourg did yesterday. They played aganist Belarus, who are not the strongest team in Europe and had already lost their chances to play in the World Cup. Luxembourg saw their chances and took the title from them. And the rest is history ! Too bad for Luxembourg though because they only have 3 days to celebrate before going to France to defend the title. We may never witness such an exotic champion in years to come so, Luxembourg, enjoy your moment!

ps- how do you put those flags in a post?

[footballholic]

UNBELIEVABLE ! BIGGEST SURPRISE EVER IN THE WHOLE 145-YEAR HISTORY OF THE UNOFFICIAL FOOTBALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS ! Luxembourg defended successfully their title by holding to a 0-0 draw with mighty France in Toulouse on 03.09.17 and are still the Unoffical European Champions! As I said in my last post, that's what so great about this competition. The fact that basically anybody can be the champions, makes it pretty interesting to follow. Who would've thought that Luxembourg are going to win the title and not drop it even after a visit to France? I guess everybody is celebrating now in Luxembourg. They deserve it and are going to enjoy their reign for at least a month before going to Sweden for their next match. Congratulations, Luxembourg and enjoy your moment!

[footballholic]

Sweden are the new Unofficial European Champions after beating title-holders Luxembourg 8-0 on 07.10. Luxembourg dissapointed everybody and lost the title 5 weeks after clinching it at home against Belarus. Sweden take their 12th title in this competition and trail only to England (22), Scotland (19) and Germany (16). They go ahead of France who have 11 and failed to beat exactly Luxembourg a month ago. It was surpsrisingly Sweden's first title match since 1996 and they took the title for the first time since 1994. They became the first team to score 8 goals in a title match since 2000 when Germany beat Liechtenstein 8-2 and also the first team to beat their opponent by 8 goals margin since 1990 when Netherlands beat Malta 8-0. It was also the first time that the champions concede 8 goals in a title match since 1954 when then-champions West Germany lost 3-8 to Hungary. Another interesting fact - Luxembourg became the first ever Unofficial European Champion that lost their title by 8 goals margin. Tomorrow, 09.10 Sweden will defend their title away against Netherlands. The home team need to win by more than 6 goals to qualify for the play-offs. But even if they fail to do that, they can at least take the title by winning the game.

[footballholic]

The Netherlands are the new Unofficial Football European Championships after beating Sweden 2-0 on 10.10. They won their 9th title in this competition ecqualising Italy who also have 9 titles. Arjen Robben scored the 2 goals in his last match for the national team. That didn't help his team and they'll miss 2nd big championship in a row but at least they got the UFEC title once again after losing it a year ago to Greece in a friendly at home. Sweden lost the title just 4 days after winning it. We don't know whether the title will be contested at the World Cup in Russia yet. The Netherlands failed to qualify but they can drop the title to some team that will go to Russia. The next match for the title will be Netherlands against Wales in Amsterdam on 23th March 2018. But there may be some other matches prior to that. We don't know yet. This also must mean that The Netherlands will enter the new 2018 as the Unofficial Football European Champions.

[footballholic]

Oct 12, 2017 10:50:17 GMT footballholic said:

This also must mean that The Netherlands will enter the new 2018 as the Unofficial Football European Champions.

There are more matches announced already. The next match for the UFEC title will be Scotland against title holders Netherlands on 9th November 2017 in a friendly in Aberdeen. That's just great ! Scotland will have the chance to become champions for the first time since 1967 ! Exactly 50 years ago they last held the title but dropped it to the Soviet Union. Only Northern Ireland haven't won another title for longer than that. Their last title is from 1958. This will be Scotland's 10th attempt at the title for this half a century period. Their last 9 matches were unsuccessful but now they have to do it. They've been expecting their 20th title for 50 years and now they have to take advantage of the possibility. 5 days after that match Netherlands are going away to Bucharest for another friendly. If they don't lose against both Scotland and Romania the title will be theirs up until March next year. There is still no information who is Scotland going to play with if they beat Netherlands.

[brazikowski]

So let's bring the latest results for the European Unofficial Championship to the record:

09/11/2017 Scotland 0-1 Netherlands
14/11/2017 Romania 0-3 Netherlands

Netherlands managed to keep the title for the new year 2018.

UNOFFICIAL CHAMPIONS MEN's | EUROPE

NETHERLANDS

Next match:

23/03/2018 Netherlands vs England

[brazikowski]

England conquered the Unofficial European Champions title from the Netherlands on Friday 23rd March 2018 by winning 1-0 in Amsterdam!

UNOFFICIAL CHAMPIONS MEN's | EUROPE

ENGLAND

Next match:

27/03/2018 England vs Italy

[brazikowski]

27/03/2018

England vs Italy 1-1

UNOFFICIAL CHAMPIONS MEN's | EUROPE

ENGLAND

In preparation to the World Cup 2018 England will face non-european opposition Nigeria and Costa Rica in early June. Also the first 2 group matches in Russia are versus Teams from outside Europe (Tunisia & Panama), so the next UEFC title match will be the 3rd WC Group Match versus Belgium.

Next match:

23/06/2018 England vs. Belgium