Unofficial Football World Championships – Peru 2 Bolivia 1

The proverbial hot potato which is the Unofficial Football World Championship crown continues to be passed around South America as it seems the accolade of being champions is one that is too hot to handle. That is because we have seen another new nation crowned to as kings of the UFWC.

After Bolivia’s somewhat shock win over Argentina back in March they had two relatively easy title defences against Nicaragua in a quick fire double header, the Central Americans could not get the job done after two attempts and it was Peru who were then next in line for a title shot.

One that cashed in last night and ultimately came up trumps after beating Bolivia 2-1 in Lima, not only was it an historic UFWC win but also a massive win in terms of qualification for next year’s World Cup finals in Russia as the Peruvians now sit in sixth place – just one spot behind Argentina in the play off berth.

In what is a grueling qualification tournament of 18 matches, we are down to just three to go and there are seven teams looking to fit into four automatic berths to advance to Russia and the aforementioned playoff spot that Argentina currently hold.

We could see a scenario where Peru keep hold of the crown during their last three qualifiers and not qualify, that would not be good for European fans of the UFWC who are longing to see a nation from their continent break this South American vice like grip on proceedings.

Peru have very little time to celebrate though as the next defence of their crown is on Tuesday away at Ecuador. Defeat for the Ecuadorians would mean that they are all but knocked out of qualification and it would massive enhance Peru’s chances of qualification

And here is the ever growing list of all the holders since I started tracking the competition in 2011

North Korea
Sweden
Argentina
Uruguay
Costa Rica
Netherlands
Argentina (2)
Germany
Argentina (3)
Brazil
Colombia
Argentina (4)
Chile
Uruguay (2)
Mexico
Chile (2)
Paraguay
Uruguay (3)
Chile (3)
Argentina (5)
Bolivia
Peru

More importantly though if we look at the South American nations that have held the UFWC crown in that list, of the 10 COMNEBOL nations only Ecuador and Venezuela are yet to hold the trophy since 2011 that is something that Ecuador could put right in a few days time.

If anything it shows just how difficult South American qualifying can be with everyone taking points off of each other and in turn that shows just why there have been so many title changes in recent times. the ideal scenario would be that it does end up in Russia for some intercontinental title matches.

This is the potential route of the UFWC crown between now and the end of the qualifiers – holders in bold

Ecuador – Peru
Argentina – Peru
Peru – Colombia

Ecuador – Peru
Chile – Ecuador
Ecuador – Argentina

Ecuador – Peru
Argentina – Peru
Ecuador – Argentina

Ecuador – Peru
Chile – Ecuador
Brazil – Chile

So as you can see there are still plenty of permutations and I would not put it past Argentina having a sixth reign and taking it all the way to Russia. We will have to wait and see how the next month pans out in the world of the UFWC