Soccer-Mad Boffins Autumn Games!

 

The National Football Museum currently has an excellent exhibition 'Batteries Not included' on the glory days of soccer themed board and computer games on its top floor. Our visit to the exhibition, which launched in July and finishes on 25th February 2024, was a blast of nostalgia and we had a lot of fun trying everything out.  First up was an exhibit from a Victorian fairground game from Blackpool pier.  This was one of the largest exhibits and was not interactive for visitors, but we did get a good photo!

Photo taken at the National Football Museum

In our groundbreaking book Foundations of Managing Sporting Events we talked about some of the merchandising that the FA came up with for the event based around their lion character, World Cup Willie.  One of these things was a game, Willie Soccer, which is featured here along with some other board games which attempted to portray aspects of soccer, including couple of attempts at management games.

 

Photo taken at the National Football Museum

Of course, no exhibition about football games would be complete without the iconic Subbuteo, and we took the opportunity to 'flick to kick' in our stride!

Subbuteo was nicely set up on a baseboard

Created by Peter Adolph in 1946, by the 1960's Subbuteo evolved from paper to plastic and was a huge hit in post-war Britain, with 'Continental edition' sets introduced to reflect the 'new' floodlit European competitions.  When we got on board with it in the 1980s and 1990s the figures were lighter, and even more associated products to keep up with trends in the game, such as Astroturf (tm) pitches.  

Alex as a Subbuteo player!

Of course, the digital age created further opportunities to tap into the pocket money of football mad kids, and computer games are also covered in the NFMs exhibition.  We played as England v Scotland in the 8-bit C64 classic Emlyn Hughes International Soccer! Other classics such as Championship Manager, Sensible Soccer, Football Director and even the cult classic goalkeeping sim Peter Shilton’s Handball Maradona were on display (but sadly not to play) in their original tape and disc versions.

The exhibition is an excellent collection of games which have attempted to represent football in different ways, some more successfully than others and runs at the NFM until 25 February 2024!

But even this exhibition couldn't cover everything and here at Soccer Mad Boffins we also have fun with other football games such as 'Striker League Champions' which integrates elements of the board game classic Monopoly, with a 'live action' penalty shootout in which players take turns to operate a plastic goalkeeper and a plastic striker whose leg kicks a plastic ball wen his head is pushed.  

Photo from Dr Alex G. Gillett private collection

Managing your team involves buying and selling players using banknotes, to upgrade your team's rating and thus the number of shots you can take against your opponent in a match/shootout.

Photo from Dr Alex G. Gillett private collection

Of course, such a board game requires time and space and sometimes all you need is something more basic and convenient. We recommend the card based 'Top of the League Football Trivia Set' for car journeys and sophisticated after-dinner entertainment!

Photo from Dr Alex G. Gillett private collection

A special thanks to Dr Alexander Jackson and the National Football Museum in Manchester, England, for producing such an excellent exhibition.

York Festival of Ideas 2023

On Saturday 10th June 2023, The Soccer Mad Boffins chaired two author discussions at the University of York Festival of Ideas. Or at least we were supposed to, but due to ill health Kevin had to withdraw his involvement at the last minute. So, Alex stepped up to chair both talks on his own, although Kevin had contributed equally to the proposals, planning, and preparing lists of questions.

The first talk extended the Soccer Mad Boffins into cricket. Dr Duncan Stone discussed his recent book 'Different Class: The Untold Story of English Cricket' (Repeater Books, paperback ISBN: 9781913462802) which explores the governance of cricket and impact of social class rigidity.  It also raises questions about outreach, public relations, and 'marketing' of the game to participants and to fans, and Duncan suggested ways to re-imagine the cricket sport 'product' that he believes would help it to become a 'people's game'.

The second talk was with Dr Alexander Jackson of the National Football Museum. He discussed his latest book 'Football's Great War: Association Football on the English Home Front, 1914 1918' (Pen and Sword, Hardback, ISBN 1399002201). Discussion then turned to the National Football museum, and curating sensitive content such as war, as well as the less sensitive topic of current and upcoming exhibitions at the museum, which is definitely worth visiting. An interesting point was how football was used to recruit players and fans to the war effort, how finances were managed to keep clubs in business, the ethics of sustaining sport during war, and how football managed its public relations and its communications/messaging during this difficult time, to it supporters, with examples of advertising from the museum's collection.

Both talks were well attended with lots of great questions from the audience in addition to those asked by Alex.

Afterwards both authors signed many copies of their books for eager attendees.

Thank you to all involved with organising and operating the Festival and for making it the amazing annual fixture that it is.

You can watch the videos of both talks free of charge using the below links;

Duncan Stone - 'different class'

Alex Jackson of National Football Museum - 'Curating the world's game - football's Great War'

Are you looking forward to England's World Cup game this evening?

Hoping for a repeat of 1966 in 2018?

Looking for something to listen to while you wait for your next fix of televised football?

Remember we have a FREE podcast all about the history of football and the world cup, with an emphasis on the 1966 tournament:

https://soundcloud.com/the-story-of-things/two-the-story-of-football

Also on itunes!

FREE SOCCER MAD BOFFINS PODCAST

The university of York and York Festival of Ideas have released their new 'Story of Things' podcast series.  which includes an episode by Dr Kevin D. Tennent and Dr Alex G. Gillett (aka The Soccer Mad Boffins) and Dr Alex Jackson (from the National Football Museum, England).

Indeed, the series promises a broad and fascinating selection of podcasts.  According to a spokesperson for University of York "Archaeologist, Dr Penny Spikins returns for a second series of The Story of Things podcast, where she is exploring research projects in sporting events, voice recognition, bee conservation, and how the police force are tackling issues of mental health".

Download the podcast for free using this link:

Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-story-of-things/id1246158465?mt=2

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-story-of-things


Produced by Philippa Geering of Overtone Productions,our episode entitled 'The Story of Football' clocks in at around 18 minutes and focuses on the FIFA World Cup as a sport mega-event. We focus in particular ion the 1966 FIFA World Cup, and contextualize it by talking the listener though football history more generally, ideas about sport mega-events as mega-projects and their associated opportunities and threats.  We also visit the National Football Museum and Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester, and join some University of York students for a game of football.

L-R: Philippa Geering (Overtone Productions) interviews Dr Alex Jackson (National Football Museum), Dr Alex G. Gillett andDr Kevin D. Tennent (Soccer Mad Boffins)

The podcast ties-in with our appearance at the York Festival of Ideas on June 12th, where we will give a talk entitled 'The Business of The World Cup' which will be chaired by the former Chairman of the Football Association, Greg Dyke.  Tickets are free but you must pre-book one to gain admittance on the evening: http://yorkfestivalofideas.com/2018/talks/business-world-cup-football/


Read more about the podcast series here:

https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/features/2018/story-of-things-podcast-returns/


Read more about York Festival of Ideas here:

http://yorkfestivalofideas.com/2018/

Soccer Mad Boffins at Wembley Stadium

As we have previously reported, here at Soccer Mad Boffins we were very pleased to have contributed to the National Football Museum's flagship World Cup 1966 commemorative exhibition which runs until 23rd April 2017.

Conveniently for footy fans in the South of England, the exhibition is replicated at London's famous Wembley Stadium until 31st December 2016.

Whilst slightly scaled-down, many of the features of the Manchester exhibition are included, as we discovered when we visited.  For example, you can see information about the public sector's involvement in planning and organising the tournament, as featured in our book 'Foundations of Managing Sporting Events':

We also got to see many other interesting exhibits and artefacts:

It was exciting to see the name of the exhibition that we had contributed to being advertised in huge writing on the front of the stadium in front of the iconic statue of World Cup winner Sir Bobby Moore:

We caught this photo from long distance just as the board message was changing, but it gives a sense of size and perspective:

More luck with this one and the good news is that the exhibition is FREE to visit:

The view from Wembley Way (aka Olympic Way):

We were also pleased to see our names on the acknowledgements list inside, at the end of the exhibition, although is somewhat smaller print than the advertising outside of the stadium!:

After a long day of travel and looking around Wembley Stadium and the World Cup '66 exhibition it was time to visit the hotel bar to rehydrate and debrief the day's work, with a great view of Wembley Stadium as our inspiriting backdrop:

The exhibition can be visited for FREE at Wembley Stadium, London and also at the National Football Museum in Manchester. More info here.

Our book 'Foundations of Managing Sporting Events' which helped to inform the exhibition is available now in hardback and e-book formats from all good book stores and libraries.

A Day at the NFM's 1966 World Cup Exhibition

Following our previous blog post about the launch of the National Football Museum’s 1966 World Cup Exhibition, which the Soccer Mad Boffins have contributed to, we decided to make a visit and take a few photos to show our readers what is on display.  

As well as enjoying reading the wealth of information and marvelling at the museum's exclusive artefacts, we also found time to have our picture taken with the England squad.....

.......and as the mascot, World Cup Willie!

The exhibition is fun as well as informative, and there is something for everyone, young and old alike. If you have not yet been to the National Football Museum then now is the time to go.  The exhibition runs until 23^rd April 2017 (St George’s Day!) and entry is FREE. In addition to the World Cup exhibition you will also discover many other treasures in the permanent displays.

Our book about the World Cup is out soon, published by Routledge as part of their International Studies in Business History series.

Launch of the 1966 World Cup Exhibition

A recent and exciting project for The Soccer Mad Boffins team has been to collaborate with our friends at the National Football Museum (NFM) in Manchester, England, on an exhibition celebrating the 1966 FIFA World Cup which was hosted and won by England.


"With stories from the people who made the games, played the games and watched the games that made the 1966 World Cup such an iconic tournament, the 1966 World Cup Exhibition celebrates England’s success and looks at the legacy of that win."

On Friday 24th June, Dr Alex Gillett attended the launch event which was also the launch for the new International Football Walk of Fame, and included speeches and Q&A from the NFM, Greg Dyke (English Football Association and former Chancellor of University of York), former England stars Sir Bobby Charlton, Roger Hunt, Jimmy Armfield, Mike Summerbee, and the families of others such as Nobby Stiles.  Also in attendance were the Head of the German Football Association (Deutsche Fussball Bund, or DFB), 'You are the Ref' artist Paul Trevillion who gave an impromptu and passionate speech, David Courtney (songwriter, producer and President/CEO of the Football Walk of Fame) and referee Keith Hackett, amongst others.

In particular, Alex was very fortunate for a photo opportunity and conversation with two stars from Women's Football, Lesley Lloyd (ex-captain of the great Southampton Ladies team which dominated the women's FA Cup through the 1970s and early 1980s) and Sue Lopez (former star of England, Southampton, and Italian 'Serie A' team Roma).

Sue Lopez, Lesley Lloyd, Dr Alex Gillett

An inteteresting factiod for us here Soccer Mad Boffins is that Sue Lopez played for the England Ladies team during the time that it was coached by the great Martin Reagan, who during his own playing career enjoyed a spell at Middlesbrough FC at the same time as Alex's Grandad Giles Gillett.

All in all the event was a great success and we highly recommend that you visit the exhibition whilst it runs (25th June 2016 - 23 April 2017). There will be another version of the exhibition held at Wembley Stadium, London launching in July 2016 and we'll report back on that too when we've had chance to visit it.