The International belt and the Unofficial Football World Championships
The Unofficial Football World Championships (UFWC) is the best-known lineal title in football: a championship that passes from nation to nation on the pitch, traced back by Paul Brown and the ufwc.co.uk community. Our International belt follows the same idea, so it's worth saying plainly where the two agree and where they can part.
Where they agree
- The same first champion. Both start with the first decisive international: England 4–2 Scotland at the Kennington Oval on March 8, 1873. The first international of all, Scotland 0–0 England in Glasgow in 1872, crowned nobody.
- Beat the holder, take the title. The holder's next full international is a title match, whatever the competition: friendly, qualifier or tournament.
- Draws stay with the holder. A drawn title match is a successful defense.
- Extra time and penalties count. A knockout match is decided by its final outcome, so a shootout winner takes (or keeps) the title.
Where they can differ
Which matches count. The UFWC follows the list of full international "A" matches as the governing bodies recognise them, and its keepers have had to rule on individual games over the years. Our belt is computed automatically, every few hours, from Mart Jürisoo's open dataset of international results, counting every match between national teams that have played World Cup qualifying. One disputed friendly in 150 years is enough to send the two titles down different roads for a while, and sometimes they are in different hands. Right now our belt says Spain, holding since June 8, 2026 with 12 defenses; the UFWC's own site lists its current champion.
Neither is "official". Both are the same question asked of the record: who last beat the team that last beat the team that last beat the first winners?
Nasazzi's Baton
Nasazzi's Baton, named for Uruguay's 1930 captain José Nasazzi, runs the same idea from the first World Cup final: Uruguay 4–2 Argentina in Montevideo on July 30, 1930. We run that line too, under our rules. It rejoined the main belt on November 14, 1934, 4 reigns in, and has been the same belt ever since. The Baton line, and the record book since 1930 →
Follow the belt
The current holder and next defense · every reign since 1873 · days since each nation last held it · RSS · calendar.