football rambles

The 80s saw the 'Zombie' figures and machine painted Subbuteo introduced. The sets from 1981-1983 also came in oblong boxes with the players on display in 2 rows instead of 2 columns for the first and last time in the history of the game. More mechanical practices also led to more teams than you could shake a stick at with clubs from a variety of leagues and divisions being represented in both their home and away strips. I only have 2 teams from this short lived period, and they came from saving up tokens in 'Match'. I think, as you will see, they did this to shift some teams that they may have had a bit of difficulty in selling. La Louviere When this team first came out they had just been relegated from the top Belgium division to Division 2. When I received the team from 'Match' they had gone down to Division 3. Nevermind though if Royale Association Athletique Louvieroise weren't your bag they also doubled as Lincoln City away. Despite being ...

I  bought these teams in the 1980s from a couple of lads on a market stall who had clearly outgrown the hobby. I can tell that the teams came from 1976 - 1980 due to the boxes that they came in and the fact that they are still clearly hand painted. Sunderland Sunderland achieved promotion in 1976, but despite topping the table for a while they went straight back down. Celtic Celtic were champions of Scotland every year between 1976 and 1982, which is perhaps not that surprising. It was a time when Danny McGrain and Kenny Dalglish were playing for the hoops. The picture below shows Celtic celebrating winning the Scottish FA Cup in 1977. Brazil In the 1978 World Cup there was only ever going to be one winner and the military junta in host nation Argentina were going to make sure that they won it. In the second group stage after a violent 0-0 draw with Argentina, both teams needed a win. A lot has been made of the 0-0 draw played out by Germany and Austria b...

The first set I got was in the mid 80s with Nigel Spink and a couple of Watford players on the front. The set came with the generic red and blue teams, but a neighbour got a few teams out of his loft and gave the me, The ones that were and are still in tact came from the late 60s and had the goalkeepers on wire. The teams were Coventry, Wolves and West Ham, the yoke on the shirt gave it away that it was West Ham, although naturally we used them predominately as Villa. Wolverhampton Wanderers The Wolves team is a fairly rare one with the gold bases and was only made for one season at the end of the 1960s. At the time Wolves had recently been recently promoted back to the top division of English football. It seems like the boys at Subbuteo HQ had taken a bit of poetic licence with the kits though , as the picture below shows what Wolves werwe actually wearing then. Coventry City The Coventry team are the same style as a late 60s Subbuteo team, but I think that they are...

As public transport and bad weather have stopped us getting to the football over the last couple of days, we have spent a bit of time playing with the subbuteo and I thought that it would be a good time to have a look at some of the clubs that we have amassed over the years in subbuteo form. So here comes the story of those teams in a few parts.

I don't subscribe to most of the rubbish that is said about the decline of society in Britain. I mean all this rubbish about ASBO and binge drinking, also gave the likes of Disraeli and Gladstone a headache, they just didn't have the jargon to know what to call it. However, the new subbuteo is pretty indicative of the rise of the individual and the selfish attitudes that were set all those years ago by Thatch. You might ask am I still blaming her for some of the crap things that happen? Well, yes I bloody well am. Anyway, what annoys me about the new subbuteo is that kids are encouraged to collect a team of superstars, so there's no more Yeovil, Bournemouth or Plymouth to collect and apart from Gareth Barry and Micah Richards, there's probably no Villa, Man City or Portsmouth, just a team of Galacticos . Let's hope it is as successful for them as it was for Real Madrid. Subbuteo has been around since 1946, when it was just a set of cardboard men on plastic bases, a...