The World is a Ball: Brazil plays to take the title of linear world champion from Croatia

In mid-2018, shortly before the World Cup decision between France and Croatia, in Moscow, I wrote a text with this statement: “The final of the Cup will also decide the linear world champion”.

More than one person came to tell me that they didn’t quite understand the content, what it was about, what the story was, even though I thought the explanations were clear enough to be well assimilated.

Apparently, it wasn’t enough, and the worst thing for a journalist is not to be understood. The reader can find the text good or bad. However, if he does not understand, the journalist has failed.

So I go for the second attempt, as again a Cup brings the subject up.

Brazil x Croatia, this Friday (9), in addition to defining one of the qualifiers for the semifinals of the Qatar Cup, is a game worth a title, that of linear world champion. The Brazilians are the challengers in this match, and the Croatians, the holders of the cup.

The linear world champion, in football, is the one who, following a timeline, won the most recent final of the UFWC (Unofficial Football World Championships).

In this championship, every game is a final. The final, by the way, is the championship itself, since every game is worth the title.

This has happened since the first match in football history that ended with a winner: England 4 x 2 Scotland, on March 8, 1873, in London.

From then on, each time the champion entered the field, he would defend his “belt”, similarly to boxing (whose linear champion among heavyweights is the Ukrainian Oleksander Usyk).

A tie? The title remains with whoever already owns the belt. The other selection only becomes champion if it defeats the current champion.

And that belt changes selections over time. Whoever beats the champion keeps him and keeps him until he is defeated.

The big challenge, even more than getting the title, is to keep it for as many matches as possible, to be successful for a long time in defending the belt.

At the World Cup in Russia, Croatia reached the decision as UFWC champion, a title it had won against Denmark in the round of 16. Winner, France assumed the rank of linear world champion, staying with him for four months.

Still hard to understand?

In simple terms, it goes like this: the current linear world champion (Croatia), to reach the post, beat Denmark (in June), which had beaten France (a week earlier), which had beaten Spain (in October 2021 ), who had beaten Italy (four days earlier)… and so on, until we reached as far back as 1873, the first holder of the title, England.

After overcoming Denmark six months ago to become linear champion, Croatia successfully defended its belt in eight “fights”, remaining with it against France, Denmark, Austria, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Canada, Belgium and Japan -the last four duels, already in the World Cup.

Brazil, on the other hand, will try to become UFWC champion again after more than seven years.

In June 2015, in the second Dunga era, the Brazilian team lost 1-0 to Colombia in the Copa América in Chile, also losing the linear world title. Of the players who played in that “decision”, Neymar, Thiago Silva and Daniel Alves are now in Qatar.

At the time, Brazil had successfully defended the UFWC belt on eight occasions, won in 2014 with a 2-0 victory over Argentina in China, in front of more than 50,000 people, in the Superclassic of the Americas. Both goals were scored by Diego Tardelli.

The UFWC website lists Scotland as the most successful country in its ranking, with 86 wins from 149 contests.

Brazil, champions for the first time in 1952, are in seventh position, with 38 wins in 71 finals, behind Scotland, England, Argentina, Holland, Italy and Russia. France, Germany and Sweden complete the top 10. Croatia ranks 23rd on the list of 49 nations.

The bout between Brazil and Croatia, at the Cidade da Educação arena, in Doha, will be the 1,005th in the history of the UFWC.