Ever since football was first played, back in the mists of time, (league wise we’re talking about the late 1800s) there have been attempts to recreate the excitement, fun and competition of the Football on a table, the floor, on a board or on a card. Yes, mini football and football spin-offs have been around almost as long as the beautiful game itself. Over the years we have had fantasy football games, football board games, a wide range of video and computer based games, football chess, and one of our personal favourites, here at Tommywantstoys.co.uk, ‘Striker’ complete with floodlights and the imaginative strapline ‘Football With A Kick’, where you pressed the heads of the player and they would actually kick the ball. Sadly ‘Striker’ is no longer being manufactured, and there have been too many football games for us to include them all, but here are a handful of our other favourites.
Table Football – ‘No Spinning’
Arguably, the first widely manufactured recreation of our national sport arrived with Harold Searles Thornton in 1922, when his patent for a ‘table football’ game was accepted. This is the popular game played in homes, sports centres, arcades, clubs and pubs and involves rows of players on rods in an enclosed playing space. Anyone who has played this will at some stage have fallen foul of the popular ‘no spinning’ rule. I know we have!
You may remember Chandler and Joey from Friends playing this throughout their flat sharing years, although the Americans in their infinite wisdom like to call it foosball. This probably comes from “fußball” German for football. Patented in the USA by Harold’s uncle, it has arguably been consistently more popular in the States than the real game!
Blow Football – No Spitting.
This breath-controlled version of Association Football is surely the simplest and easiest football game to play. Ostensibly the DIY of football games, it is possible to play wherever you can get hold of two straws and a ping-pong ball or similar, although there have been commercial and boxed versions, for around a hundred years. These will include actual small goals and goalkeepers.
Subbuteo – Just Flick to Kick
Subbuteo is perhaps the most famous football game of them all. Those Little Plastic Men have been flicking around on the tables and carpets of the nation ever since 1947, after when it was first advertised in 1946 in the incredibly popular Boy’s Own. The phrase ‘Just Flick to Kick’ from adverts in the 1970’s became so well known it was immortalized in the brilliant and funny Undertones song ‘My perfect Cousin’
‘He always beat me at Subbuteo
‘Cos he flicked to kick, and I didn’t know’
D. O’Neil/N.Bradley
Subbuteo has a huge cult following and a broad fan base. There have been famous World Tournaments and other pop culture references of the game are found in e Red Dwarf, Massive Attack’s album Blue Lines, Irvin Walsh’s best selling novel Trainspotting to name but a few. Subbuteo is so popular there is a governing body the English Subbuteo Table Football Association or ESTFA.
Match Attax, Top Trumps - ‘Show Him The Card’
Football card games including the current Match Attax and Top Trumps, have always been popular. Whether got from bubble Gum, sweets, or bought in your local newsagent in their own packets, kids have traditionally loved to swap and play with football cards ever since the game started. Both Top Trumps and match Attax have their own game built in, are covered in statistics, facts and pictures of your favourite players.
Whichever way you want to play, there is a football out there for you, and of course you never know… they might even encourage you to get out and play the beautiful game itself.
‘Come On England!’
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