Alive & flicking
Table-top football game Subbuteo’s thriving in its 75th year
MENTION Subbuteo to men of a certain age and you might see them develop a twinkle in their eye, a warm nostalgic glow and a twitch in their fingertip.
This year the flick-to-kick tabletop football game turns 75, having gone from selling 300,000 sets a year in its 1970s and 80s heyday to just 500 in 2003, before undergoing something of a retro resurgence in the digital age.
Created in 1947 by RAF serviceman Peter Adolph, Subbuteo is still very much alive and kicking with more than 30 leagues around the globe, and England due to host a World Cup in 2024.
Subbuteo collector and creator of the YouTube Vlog Youbbuteo, Stewart Grant, is helping to put together the English Subbuteo Association’s Subbuteofest at the end of this month.
“Subbuteo for me brings back the glory days of football from before we sat down and Football Manager and FIFA put us behind a screen,” he says. “Even nowadays, playing Subbuteo gets you out meeting new people and creating friendships. From building the stadiums and setting out the police to the dugouts and being able to recreate a cup final from years ago. “It really is about that pure nostalgic joy. I can’t say I’m a great player but the best goals are all about the build-up, keeping possession between a few different players and then knocking the ball to the shooting zone and, well, bang it into the top corner.” Early versions of Adolph’s game were primitive. Cardboard cutout players were fixed to buttons from his mum’s clothes, weighed down with lead washers. There was no cloth pitch to play on, just dimensional instructions and the suggestion to use an old blanket and chalk to mark out the playing area. Initial efforts to get
Goals are all about build-up.. then bang it into the top corner STEWART GRANT SUBBUTEO COLLECTOR
the game trademarked as “hobby” were rejected by officials for being too generic so Adolph, a keen ornithologist, chose a neo-Latin scientific name, Falco Subbuteo – a bird of prey known as the Eurasian hobby.
The game went into production. It was the beginning of nothing short of a phenomenon.
Over the years some 300 team strips have been created and celebs have been involved, including legendary commentator John Motson who fronted an advertising campaign.
Italian footballer Paolo Di Canio revealed his dream to play for Celtic stemmed from his Subbuteo playing as a kid when he became captivated by the green and white hoops.
Toy expert Peter Jenkinson (aka The Toyologist) had a set given to him as a Blackpool supporter, only to find out later that it was the Netherlands team sporting a very similar orange kit.
“Subbuteo was one of the first classic action games where lads and dad could take on each other and the playing field was pretty even,” Peter says. “You could flick as hard as you wanted, and generally did, to hit the back of the net. But over time you’d learn that a little strategy went a very, very long way.
“My best memories of Subbuteo aren’t the game itself but the banter with my grandad as we set it up.
“It’s most certainly one of my top five iconic playthings of all time.”
Makers tried to expand the format with rugby, cricket and speedway variants along a similar pattern of play but these didn’t quite match retailers expectations to make shelf space for them. Sales gradually declined to the 2003 low of just 500 sets and production was halted.
Hasbro relaunched it in 2005 with flat photorealistic card-style figures on bases, but it flopped and was discontinued.
It could have been a sad end for Subbuteo but then the licence for the game was given to Eleven Force in 2012 who introduced threedimensional rubber figures and accessories including stands, cups, crowds, policemen and even streakers.
In 2020, Hasbro switched the licence over to an outfit called Longshore, based in Hong Kong, who have been instrumental in the renewed interest in the game, with more new teams and a Subbuteo VAR bringing play right up to date.
Alan Lee, vice chairman of the English Subbuteo Association, runs a shop called the Wobbly Hobby Shop, selling vintage and modern Subbuteo gear. “I‘ve just got home from playing tournaments in Majorca, Barcelona and Bologna, on the Federation of International Sports Table Football World Tour,” he says. “I’m enjoying seeing the return in popularity of the game, it has such a great social feel. We need more kids playing, In Europe you see this, especially in Belgium and Italy. Back in the 70s and early 80s we had seven million people playing.”
A 75th anniversary game and Premier League game are being released as part of the celebrations, the former in a commemorative silver grey box alongside a limited edition gold football and corner flags sporting the 75th emblem.
“Subbuteo is a nostalgic brand that’s evoked childhood memories for many parents and grandparents,” says Gemma Lewington, marketing director for University Games. “We hope that in this anniversary year, with the new products we can inspire even more of the next generation to get flicking and kicking!”
Rules of the game attempt to correspond as closely as possible with the real thing, though some simplifications do make it a little blurry at times.
Flick a figure, but only the same one three times in a row, and, you can’t shoot for goal until the ball is over the shooting line – between the goal line and half-way line. And yes, the offside rule applies.
Flicking mini players around a felt football pitch can’t compete with the overhead kicks you’ll find on a console game but Subbuteo offers much more.
Setting up a game, developing tactics, moving the rod on your keeper to make a save, the atmosphere of creating your game, and of course the banter, can’t be matched.
Even if you don’t play the game every day it looks splendid just left on display.
So, clear those coffee table books away and iron the pitch – this is far more fun.