My definition is entirely consistent. “All Comers” means every one who partcipated in the event. Depending on the structure of the competition, some participants may have got eliminated in qualifying for the final World Championship tournament, such as in the World Cup. But the winner of the final event can be perceived to have legitimately triumphed over all.
Your point about potential splits in Authority is a legitmate one, however there is no argument for the most part about most sports.
Certainly IRL-CART would have a legitmate claim to call their winners “World Champions”. It is an international competition with drivers from all over the world and has multiple international venues. But the winners would be the “IRL-CART World Champion” as opposed to the “Formula 1 World Champion”. Neither would label themselves the “World Driving Champion” though either might think they are.
As for FIFA, their first World Cup in 1930 had 16 teams from all over the world, including the USA!
As for having a World Champion of a non-international sport, well that is just an exercise in futility and a hollow title.
As I said before, why not call them “Intergallactic Champions”? It is just as meaningful. I guess it’s OK for those who like to be big fish in little ponds..
Your problem comes in with the “defeated”. See to defeat all comers they have to play everybody and beat them. It’s rare in sports for anybody to play the whole league (though the NBA and NHL do it, but with very few games across to the other conference), but you make the not just play the whole league but BEAT everybody. That’s just not gonna happen. And of course in the tournament section, the playoff tree part of the schedule, as you point out, comers will be eliminated before your world champion gets to face them. So therefore your world champion will NOT have “defeated all comers” and therefore NOT, by your definition, be a World Champion.
Maybe there’s no argument in most sports. But boxing proves that international organizations are just as unilateral in deciding they hand out World Championships. There are four organizations (IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO) that hand out World Championships in boxing. Unilateral decision making by international bodies.
FIFA’s first “World Cup” was 1930, FIFA’s first competition was 1906, 3 years before non-Europeans were in.
They’re ALL hollow titles. They’re sports titles, none of them mean a damn thing. And pro-boxing proves that even when you have your precious international body there “world champion” title means nothing. It’s no different if there’s one participating country or a hundred, it’s all silly sports titles. You’re right in one thing, intergalactic champion is just as meaningless as world champion. What you don’t understand is that ALL world champion titles that have EVER been given out by ANY organization in ANY sport are JUST AS MEANINGLESS. FIFA is no different than the NFL, just a silly sports organization that unilaterally decided they were going to crown world champions.