Match Facts Football Yearbook 87/88

It's oft claimed that kids of today spend all their time in their rooms on their computers or consoles, while the youth of our day did nothing but play out from morn til night. I have a teenage stepson and while he does indeed spend a looooot of time glued to his computer (phrasing!), he also spends a good deal of time outdoors in that good old fashioned fresh air, playing good old fashioned football. When I think back to my Saturday afternoons...

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The Greatest Retro Football Video Game Ever: The Final

And so it's come to this... Fifty of the greatest retro football video game titles have been whittled down to just two. Falling by the wayside have been the classic and the clumsy, the majestic and the 'meh', but now we arrive at the Final to find a monumental showdown between two giants of the home computer age. On the one hand, we have Sensible Soccer, a playing simulation par excellence. 'Sensi' provided everything the football fan could ever...

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Fantasy Nostalgia: Liverpool wear Admiral

When I recently read Bert Patrick's book all about the history of Admiral, legendary kit makers to the great and good of British football, one episode sent my mind into a tailspin. It was the section where Patrick, looking to grab the kit contracts for as many top clubs as possible, approached Bill Shankly at Liverpool and gained his agreement to provide them Admiral outfits. Sadly for Bert Patrick, what would have been a huge name to add to his...

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The Greatest Retro Football Video Game: Semi Final result

The last five days of voting are finally over and now we can announce who has reached our Greatest Retro Football Video Game Final! Thanks to all the votes you registered, we ended up with a clear winner in Group A and a tie for first place in Group B! Despite a neck-and-neck battle with Sensible World of Soccer over the first four days, it was Sensible Soccer that eventually stretched its lead towards the end of the Group A campaign to...

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Subbuteo: Short-Sided Variations

Think of Subbuteo and you think of eleven plastic men pitted against eleven on a big green cloth pitch. It was ever thus; in its simplistic form, Subbuteo was nothing if not a beguiling interpretation of football on a miniature scale. What's not so well known is that the makers of this classic football game also made several other variations, each with their own quirks and foibles... 1. Fivesides "The Replica of Indoor Soccer" as it proudly...

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The Greatest Retro Football Video Game Ever: Semi Finals

Welcome back to the Greatest Retro Football Video Game vote-off where we find ourselves at the semi-final stage! We had a great response to the First Round of our competition, so thank you to everyone that took part. The results were as follows: Simulation: 1970's/1980's Kick Off (1989, CA/AST) - 16 votes Emlyn Hughes International Soccer (1988, C64/ZXS/AST/CA/AMS) - 14 votes Match Day (1984, ZXS/C64/AMS/BBCM) - 10 votes Microprose Soccer (1988,...

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World Soccer: August 1981

With less than a year to go until the 1982 World Cup, there was much concern among the writers of World Soccer. Concern over Spain's readiness to host the tournament, concern over England's ability to qualify, and concern over the standard of football being played by Europe's top clubs. A survey of officials and observers in Spain suggested the twelfth World Cup hosts would indeed be ready when the tournament started in June 1982, however while...

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The Greatest Retro Football Video Game Ever: First Round

How do you like your video game football? Do you like the excitement of scoring goals out on the pitch, or do you prefer the cerebral challenge of managing your team to glory? Either way, the world of computer soccer has offered much in the way of fun, thrills and spills down the years, from the basic battyness of Binatone's 'Football' to the ultra-realistic games we know today. But what's so fun about manipulating a not-quite-right version of...

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