S African board game scores in UK

Soccer in the mind

A group of young South African entrepreneurs have stolen a march on the vast UK football merchandising industry, which turns over billions of pounds every year, with the invention of a new soccer board game that has been patented worldwide. Endorsed by Gary Bailey (former Manchester United goalkeeper, born in South Africa) and in England by the "PeIe of soccer commentators", Martin Tyler, the AllAboutFootball game based on UK club soccer, has been launched in South Africa and in Britain and is on sale at toy shops, department stores and supermarkets.

Bespoke versions of the game have also been contracted with famous major English Premiership League clubs Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and with Rangers in the Scottish League. Different versions of the game based on the Spanish La liga and the German Bundesliga, are also being developed and there have been requests for rugby and golf versions.

The inventors of the game conceived the idea while killing time at their Woodmead offices waiting for Johannesburg rush hour traffic to disperse. Like many thousands of South Africans, Terry Kier, Neil Dove, Dean Harrison and Daniele Zanato are all keen followers of the English soccer and its associated competitions.

"Once the idea had taken root, we decided to first do the English Football League because it has a great history, a fanatical following worldwide and offers the scale required to ensure success for the venture," said spokesman Terry Kier.

The sheer scale of the project dictated that the printing and production of the game be conducted overseas and AllAboutFootball is currently being manufactured in China, although the design of the game, the packaging and the questions (tested and checked by UK football experts) were put together in South Africa.

"Board games are very social," said Kier. "AllAboutFootball not only provides home entertainment but will also be popular in sports bars. It can be played as an individual or team contest and is supplied with two versions of dice, one for a short game and the other for a longer game."

The game sells in South Africa at under R200. There are 300 questions cards, each with five questions, giving a total of 1,500 questions over five categories: players and managers; clubs and grounds; rules and disciplines; competitions and general knowledge. Booster packs with new questions will be produced every year.

The version on sale in South Africa has been seeded with many questions relating to the involvement of South African and other African players in professional English soccer. Initial orders far exceeded expectations and a further production run has been ordered.

There are features in the game that are football related, including "substitution cards" and "penalty shoot-outs". With the latter, a player landing on a penalty shoot-out has an opportunity to answer all five questions on the card.

"Football fans will love this game," said Kier. "We have tested it extensively with Gary Bailey and other football followers and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. It also works well for people who are less knowledgeable about the game, who will enjoy it and learn from it at the same time. It provokes a lot of debate and discussion."

Copyright International Communications Jan 2006
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