PER LEGGERLO TUTTO CLICCATE QUA!

Top Ten: Retro Football Hobbies

Jonny Abrams
Posted on: 27 October 2009 - 16:39
Football
Comments: Be the first to comment

Do you remember the days when the first you knew of any new signing was when they were holding up your club’s scarf on the back page of a local paper? Those days of old, when knights were bold, and tedious internet warriors weren’t invented? The internet has brought an almost suffocating scrutiny upon the game of football, which got Sport.co.uk yearning for simpler times. And whenever Sport.co.uk yearns, harks back, or reminisces, a new Top Ten is born. This? Why, it’s only Sport.co.uk’s Top Ten Retro Football Hobbies…

1. Subbuteo

Peter Adolph, the game’s creator, originally wanted to call the game ‘Hobby’ but had to settle for Subbuteo, which is derived from the neo-Latin scientific name Falco subbuteo (a bird of prey commonly known as the Eurasian hobby) when he wasn’t granted a trademark. Flicking a team of little plastic men on half-shell platforms into disproportionately large balls (er…) across a sheet of green cloth may or may not sound like your idea of a good time, but such was the game’s popularity that lyrical references to it cropped up in three cast-iron classics of popular music: ‘My Perfect Cousin’ by The Undertones and ‘All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit’ by Half Man Half Biscuit and ‘Five Man Army’ by Massive Attack. Three cheers for goalkeepers with long, green paddles emerging from their backsides!