How does FA tackle sexism? An all-female Subbuteo team!
IN an era of hi-tech gaming, Xboxes and PlayStations, it seems a throwback to a very different, old-fashioned age.
While today’s youngsters are to be found hunched over a screen zapping the enemy in a computer-generated and often nightmarish setting, children in the 1960s and 70s lived in a simpler fantasy land.
For many boys – and it was mostly boys – this consisted of flicking tiny plastic models of their football heroes across a green felt pitch as they tried to propel the oversized ball into the net. And even though it has fallen behind the times, Subbuteo retained a place in hearts and minds, as well as in popular culture, where it has featured in pop songs, plays and films.
Now the game has hauled itself into the 21st century in at least one respect – by launching its first female teams.
Bosses say the move reflects the rapid growth of women’s football.
The FA and makers Hasbro revealed the limited edition version of the game ahead of the Women’s FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium this Saturday, with the Subbuteo figures wearing the colours of finalists Arsenal and Chelsea. The FA said the new version supported its objective to tackle barriers within the women’s game.
The set includes 22 outfield players and six substitutes, each hand-moulded and painted with their own characteristics – and detailing that is clearly female.
The classic Subbuteo box has also been given a new design. Although the set is not available to buy, fans will have the opportunity to win one via FA social media channels.
Marzena Bogdanowicz, FA head of marketing for women’s football, said: ‘This new, all-female Subbuteo set is a reflection of the rapid growth that women’s football is seeing in the UK right now.
‘We aspire to greater equality all the way from board games to boardrooms, and every day we are striving to transform the future of the women’s game on and off the pitch.’
Interest in women’s football in the UK has grown rapidly since the England team, known as the Lionesses, finished third at the 2015 Women’s World Cup. They are now managed by former England, Manchester United and Everton star Philip Neville.
Attendances at the FA’s Women’s Super League have grown, buoyed by the emergence of stars such as Manchester City and England captain Steph Houghton and Player of the Year Fran Kirby of Chelsea.
Subbuteo, on the other hand, once a regular fixture on Christmas wish lists, has been largely displaced by computer games.
It was invented in the mid-1940s by RAF veteran Peter Adolph, who began producing sets in his home village of Langton Green, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He wanted to call it Hobby but was refused a trademark and so opted for Subbuteo, from the Latin name for a falcon now known as the Eurasian hobby.
As the game evolved, the players were remodelled to give them heavier bases to make it easier to flick them into position more accurately. Sets were available in the colours of all major club and international sides – and even the fictional Melchester Rovers. At its peak, the firm sold more than 300,000 teams a year but in 2000 Hasbro, which had bought Subbuteo, ceased production in Britain, blaming the rise of football video games.
It returned to UK shops in 2012 and has even entered the gaming market with a version for Nintendo DS.
‘Transform the future of the women’s game’