Pound for Pound World Championship (1999-2010)
Russia may have taken the prize off France in qualifying, but they could only manage third place in their qualifying group, therefore failing to reach the European Championships. That meant the Russians held onto their crown into the World Cup qualifiers, until a September 2001 defeat to Slovenia saw yet another new champion. Inexplicably, Slovenia would lose the title in humuliating fashion, a 5-1 defeat to Honduras, and after they had qualified for the World Cup too. The Carlsberg cup match was to mark China's new year celebrations.
Honduras made two succesful defences as world champions, but failure to qualify for the World Cup in Japan and South Korea meant they would not be able to defend it at the tournament itself, and at the end of June Brazil would once again be crowned world champions.
The Confederations Cup of 2003 would be where Brazil would lose the title, a 1-0 defeat to Cameroon sending the prize to Africa for the first time - at least it would have, had Cameroon been able to return home undefeated, but France defeated them in the final to reclaim their throne.
France would have to defend their trophy through the European Championships of 2004. They almost lost to England, but remarkably managed two late goals to not only avoid defeat but win the game. However, Greece were the shock team of the tournament, and on their way to winning it they defeated the French to be PPWC winners too.
It won't surprise many to learn that Greece weren't top of the world for long, but it could have been expected a bigger name than Albania would have been the team to defeat them. The Albanians were never going to have the prize for long, and four days later Georgia put paid to their dreams. Some parity was resotred as Ukraine took the title a month later, and they made a sterling defence of the trophy until a shock defeat at home to Turkey saw yet another new champion.
Turkey entered the World Cup 2006 play-offs, where they faced off against Switzerland. They lost the first game, temporarily giving away their bauble, but four days later won the PPWC back in the second leg. They lost the play-off though on away goals, which meant they would not be in Germany for the 2006 World Cup to defend their title. Italy were crowned champions after winning a penalty shoot-out against France.
Italy's win would start a remarkable sequence of events where the PPWC would swap around in a dramatic qualifying group for the 2008 European Championships.
France defeated Italy 3-1 in Paris to avenge their World Cup final defeat. Then in October, France travelled to Hampden Park and went down 1-0 to a fired up Scotland. Scotland though would only hold onto the title for our favourite number of days, four, when they would then lose 2-0 in Ukraine. France would defeat Ukraine at home to bring the PPWC back to Paris, and even managed to defend their crown away to Italy. However they were knocked off their perch once again by Scotland, this time at home, as a James McFadden wonder goal put Scotland back on top of the world.
The group continued to cause surprises, and a 2-0 defeat to Georgia saw the trophy change hands again. When Georgia subsequently lost to Lithuania, this meant that every team in the group bar the Faroe Islands had at one stage been classed as pound for pound world champions. As the group ended, Lithuania remained as holders.
In a remarkable coincidence, the UFWC ran through the group too, however took different paths, with Georgia bringing the title into the group, losing it to Scotland who lost it to Italy, and it was the Italians who finished the group as holders.
Back to the PPWC, with Lithuania not at Euro 2008 to defend the trophy, they continued as champions until the World Cup 2010 qualifiers. They were not expected to hold onto the title for long, but started the group in terrific fashion, bludgeoning Romania 3-0 and beating Austria. However, all good things must come to an end, and Serbia ended their reign with a 3-0 win in October. The Serbians went on to stroll through the group, even holding off the challenge of France, and looked set to head to the World Cup as defending champions, before they lost to.........Lithuania.
Lithuania of course were not at the party in South Africa and therefore had to vacate the throne as the World Cup began. A month later, and Spain won the World Cup, therefore putting them on top of the world.
This also aligned most of the titles - with Spain World Cup holders, Unofficial World Cup holders (defeating previous holders Holland), and Pound for Pound World Champions.
The Nasazzi's Baton only count games won during the 90 minutes, which means because Spain won in extra-time, they still counted their current holders Holland as champions. The Virtual World Championships had Columbia as their champion.
The UFWC saw Spain lose their crown to Argentina in a 4-1 friendly defeat. However the PPWC will discount that as it is a friendly, therefore meaning all the PPWC and the UFWC once again seperated..
Spain made their first defence of the PPWC title with a 4-0 win away to liechtenstein. The opportunity then arose for Lithuania, who had been PPWC kings before the World Cup, to win back their crown. A 3-1 defeat meant Spain extinguised any lingering doubts about their right to the throne.
A trip to Hampden Park on October 12th posed their biggest test to date since claiming the crown. The Spanish were 2-0 ahead inside an hour though, but Scotland fought back to bring it level to 2-2 and looked on the verge of upsetting the world champions. Like true kings of the world though, Spain scored late on to win 3-2, and keep hold of their crown.
