Though the emphasis when it comes to football games these days is firmly on the big video games such as Fifa and Pro Evolution Soccer series, there's no substitute for a punishingly well-organised, strictly-refereed, and comprehensively-documented Football board game. Puns aside, here, you'll find the best to worst table top, board and card football themed games to play as a football fan! Time for kickoff methinks, and I certainly lied about stopping with the football puns; I was telling the truth about finding some absolute classics here, though.
1 - Subbuteo
Call me bias because I am! But this classic table top footy game has to come first on the list, partly due to nostalgia, partly due to the originality of it at the time it was first launched just after World War II (1947) and finally due to it's longevity - still entertaining people right now today and even used by some managers when discussing real life football tactics!
Subbuteo is really just like any other of the table-top miniatures game in many respects. It has a playing surface of pre-determined dimensions, a set of rules that must be followed for its gameplay, and literally hundreds of tiny player pieces ready to be collected and used in full-on miniature battles against opponents. The distinguishing factor that sets Subbuteo apart from games like Dungeons and Dragons, however, is the fact you're kicking around a tiny football by flicking slightly larger (but still very tiny) players around a miniature football pitch.
It's a far cry away from the big video and mobile games of today but that's exactly why it's worth playing, it brings you back to the good old days of football before the flashing lights, big cash and business tycoons changed the game forever.
Visit the Official Website to Find Out More
2 - Tactico Football Edition
There are many sports covered by the Tactico rule set, but football is by far the most popular version of this card-based board game. This isn't just an on-pitch shooting fest: Tactico's rule set dictates that you manage everything from the finances of your club, to the purchasing of your team through to collecting player and other types of cards along the way.
What sets Tactico apart from the rest on this list is its simplicity: its rules and parameters are easy to follow. The only thing it's missing is dynamic match-play, as instead matches are decided through rolls of the dice and the cards a player holds at the time. This small niggle aside, however, this is the greatest football board game in existence so far.
Check it out here http://www.tacticofootball.co.uk/
3 - Socceristic
Here's a game for the match-play tacticians out there. Leave the management/monopoly-style gameplay to Tactico, since Keith Mallett's complicated-looking yet simple-to-play board game is quite the experience.
The board looks intimidating, but the idea is simple: your rolls of the dice determine how far the ball moves across the board. The direction of the ball is indicated by tiny arrows, while other variables and scenarios enter into play on certain squares, each requiring either another dice roll or the overturning of a card.
This is number 2 since it carefully recreates all of the rules and stipulations of a real-life football match, and the official Socceristic website lists the game's major stockists.
4 - John Adams Total Action Football
Most will immediately think Subbuteo when they see this game, but this has more depth than its world-famous counterpart. Rather than just flick plastic players around, John Adams's version has a magnetic component to it, allowing you to perform some rather intricate skills on the pitch. It's a nice change from the management-based games on this list. It's not cheap, though setting you back around £26.99 for the privilege.
Visit the Board Games Official Website
5 - Super 11
It is Super 11's presentation that is the most striking, consisting of a board-based representation of a match, with a chequered overlay and various power-cards to play. It's a mixture of strategy and luck (dice throws), but it's also one of the few games on this list that spreads itself nicely between managing your team and its tactics as well as enjoying some fast-paced, pitch-based play.
You'll probably have to pick this one up second hand at somewhere like Amazon UK or somewhere else in the US because it's been out of stock for a while now.
6 - BrainBox Football
One of the cheaper games on this list - just £10 in the UK or $20 in the US; Brainbox Football's action is entirely trivia-based. It isn't the only football trivia game on the list, but it is one of the games with many questions that would test the knowledge of even the most avid football fan. Just study the selected card for 10 seconds, and then answer a question that's decided by the roll of a dice. It's simple enough in theory, and entertaining in practice!
Brainbox board games including this one are available from many different shops online.
7 - Starplayer Football
Here's a comprehensive football board game for the whole family. Unlike trivia games, you don't need serious football knowledge to play, just the willingness to play what is essentially the same as the Football Manager video game but in board-game form. Starting with a budget of $150 million, you need to manage and assemble a team of 11 players as well as a stadium before rolling and card-picking to decide match outcomes. You can make money in various ways, and this game includes a lot of investment in players and infrastructure, therefore making it quite a realistic experience.
You can pick this board game up at many different online retailers.
8 - Flip Football
Another cheap option for maximum football fun, picked up for as little as £4.99 (I'm not sure about the US). This is one of the simpler games on the list, requiring only the provided deck of cards and a glance over the rules, but its fun pits one team vs another in a 2-player fashion, allowing for some quick-drawing, quick-scoring action.
9 - He Shoots He Scores
This one edges out Scene It? by a tiny margin, largely due to its sheer quantity of clips, pictures, and brain-bending trivia questions, all to do with the wonderful sport. It's a little more expensive than Scene It? Football, but the added expense buys you a much more comprehensive football experience, and the Spot The Ball segment is perhaps one of the most entertaining skills/observation-based challenges seen in any game on this page.
10 - FIFA Scene It? DVD Game
FIFA's domination of the football world continues with their Scene It? football board game. There are plenty of Scene It? iterations out there, but this is by far the best for football fans. It's a little dated now, having been updated for release in 2006, but its collection of football questions will challenge every football fan out there, even if the information is largely out of date at the time of writing. For this reason it's 8th on this list, but at £4.99 it's difficult to criticise any further.