It was as far back as January 1989 – a full three years before the Barcelona Olympics began – when the makers of Subbuteo decided it would apply to be a sport at the world’s greatest sporting event.
The story has been mentioned many times since. It is often a fun little Olympics fact that gets a little chuckle. After all, what is athletic about flicking a few plastic men around a table?
The actual story of Subbuteo applying to be an Olympic sport has a bit more too it.
Subbuteo has always had the best marketing in the games world. From the initial advert, placed in Boys Own magazine in the 1940s, through to the golden era of Subbuteo marketing in the 1980s and 1990s, when players would have their fingers insured for astronomical amounts, the marketing department at Subbuteo Sports Games and later Waddingtons were masters at generating column inches.
The Olympic bid initially sounds like a cynical marketing ploy. It garnered plenty of coverage in England’s national press and over two years led to some brilliant snippets in newspapers across the country – even when the Olympics decided against including Subbuteo next to the historical track and field events of the tournament.
In the Newcastle Sun on 11 January 1991, it read: “Subbuteo fans are crying foul after failing to book a place in the Olympics. Regional Champions Christopher Thomas is among those protesting at the decision to keep the popular football game out of the Games.
“Christopher, 11, of Rivers Way, Stokesly, Cleveland, is regional Subbuteo champion. He reckons the Olympics could score if Subbuteo is included. ‘It’s a great game – and it should be at the Olympics.’ he said.”
Another article in the Daily Record said: “The top selling table game, with five million players worldwide, has been turned down as a demonstration sport for the 1992 Olympic Games. It lost out to the warlike Taekwondo and Palote Basque, the wall game played with a basket. Now Subbuteo organisers, whose game is played in more than 50 countries, are considering an appeal.”
However, one player was relieved with the news. “But not everybody was unhappy. John McGiffen, of Airdrie, who reached the quarter finals of an international tournament in Rome in June, said ‘I am disappointed in way. But there are so many competitions available it is hard to keep up as it is.'”
Meanwhile, reports highlighted how Subbuteo organisers were upset with the decision. Marketing Director at the time Tony Norton was quoted as saying: “We are considering what action to take.”
It is likely Subbuteo took little to no action. The application had done a good job marketing the game and the point had been made. It’s not a funny story of a silly little game getting ideas above its station, like when a non-league club announces a cheeky bid for Lionel Messi on a slow football news day.
The International Olympic Committee actually recognises more sports and games than you would expect. The official Olympics website lists the World Bridge Federation, the World Chess Federation and the World Confederation of Billiard Sports as recognised Olympic sports. Bridge and Chess are both table-top games with very little physical activity. In fact, they are slower and less ‘real time’ than Subbuteo.
Chess is one of the most beloved games in the world and would be an obvious candidate for a table-top Olympic choice. However, Chess experts at Regency Chess have a theory about why it has never been chosen.
“There are many reasons why Chess is not suitable for the Olympic games. I believe the most notable reason is related to viewership. The Olympics mostly hosts games that are exciting to watch, and most people can follow them and understand what is going on – this would not be the case for the world watching chess games in the Olympics, for inexperienced viewers it would be near impossible to understand who is winning, or what is going on.”
Britannica has another possible reason: “There are numerous other rules, including bans on purely ‘‘mind sports’’ and sports dependent on mechanical propulsion. These rules have kept chess, automobile racing, and other recognized sports out of the Olympic Games.”
It’s an interesting idea and one that Subbuteo largely avoids. Classic Subbuteo is based on association football, as the famous tagline suggests. People understand the rules and would instantly know how the scoring system and overall play works. Rules such as the three flick rule and the shooting line are easy to explain. It is also not a ‘mind sport’ only, as it requires skill to propel the players around the pitch.
In fact there was nothing to really stop the Subbuteo federations of the time being accepted as a recognised federation by the IOC. If Chess and Bridge are there then Subbuteo could have been too. It may have even had a better chance than those sports to move from official recognition to a full Olympic Sport – although this was never actually the plan.
The key here is the term ‘demonstration sport’. Subbuteo never applied to be a full Olympic Sport. It applied to be a demonstration sport and that means it would be played as part of the Olympics but would not be recognised as an official event. It is a nice idea – it gives the Olympics a chance to showcase local or popular sports that do not meet the full criteria.
Subbuteo in 1989 actually had a massive player base. According to a report in the Daily Record there were five million Subbuteo players worldwide, while basket-based sport Palote Basque, which was accepted into the 1992 Olympics, is around 60,000 players in France today.
Subbuteo was at the time reported as being played in 50 countries, while Olympic rules state a sport must be widely practiced by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents and by women in no fewer than 40 countries and on three continents. It probably just missed that criteria and that means it was always going to be a demonstration sport.
But it fits the criteria for that perfectly. It is not even as if table top games are completely antithesis to the Olympic idea.
The International Olympic Committee is finally embracing video games. Just last week the IOC decided to launch a new era for Olympic sport.
According to Fortune: “The IOC on Tuesday approved the creation of the Olympic Esports Games, something the organization has been weighing seriously since 2018. The vote was unanimous.
“The Olympic Esports Games will be a separate event, with the first edition held in 2025 in Saudi Arabia. Work now begins on selecting the specific timing of the event, the titles to be included, the qualification process for the players, and additional details.
“This is truly a new era for the IOC,” said IOC President Thomas Bach in a statement. “We are keeping up with the pace of the digital revolution. … This is further proof of the attractivity of the Olympic brand and the values it stands for among young people.”
The Olympics is open to left-field inclusions and on paper Subbuteo actually did have a chance to be a demonstration sport in the Olympics. If eSports are being seriously considered than the predecessor to those sports was absolutely within its rights to make a claim.
The failure to be accepted could have simply been an issue with timing. Pelote Basque’s inclusion was a geographical one. The Basque region stretches across Spain and France and an Olympics in Barcelona was always likely to favour a sport player within the country of the tournament.
Perhaps if 1992 would have been a London Olympics the silly, clearly bonkers plan to get Subbuteo into the Olympic Games may have actually been more than a genius marketing plan.
