Tabletop football

The games employ miniature figures of players on a bounded playing board or table that looks like a football pitch (field).

Implementations vary: Inspired by home-made games involving children flicking marbles, bits of paper (as in paper football), coins and other discs (as in penny football and early button football), and other objects with their fingers to crudely simulate team sports, tabletop football games have been developed and released in commercially available packages under various trademarked titles over many decades.

The earliest was Newfooty in 1929, and this style of game was popularised much further by Subbuteo in 1946 (later also available to simulate non-football sports like cricket and various forms of hockey), and in franchise-branded versions like Lego Soccer[3] in 2000.

As a competitive activity – something of a sport in its own right – tabletop association football (some countries call it soccer) with freely movable figures on weighted bases is known as sports table football, played under rules published by the Federation of International Sports Table Football (FISTF), with an annual world cup competition since 1993, and Confederation Championships or Cups, hosted in a rotating fashion in one of the countries with a national FISTF-affiliated Association (called Member National Association, MNA).

Though originally begun with Newfooty-brand (1929) and Subbuteo-brand (1947) equipment, many specialist companies now produce game pieces, such as bases, figures, goalkeepers, goals, pitches, complete playing board and tables, boxes or coffers for sets and many other fine accessories, for serious players.