Inside the Subbuteo World Cup as tournament comes to Kent as players get FINGERS insured and hold training camps

WEMBLEY, MARACANA, Stadio Olimpico, Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre.

All of these venues will have one thing in common come Monday. They will have hosted a World Cup final.

It seems odd that a commuter town 30 miles outside London should stage the climax to a huge international football tournament.

But if you’re into Subbuteo it’s no surprise at all. This weekend, 300 players from 26 nations plus hundreds more fans are flocking to a leafy part of Kent to see the famous table-top game ‘come home’.

Subbuteo was devised by former RAF man Peter Adolph in 1947, in the village of Langton Green on the outskirts of Tunbridge Wells.

It is still regarded as the cradle of a unique game which has stood the test of time and seen off the challenge of video games to be bigger than ever.

The Subbuteo World Cup is everything that a real one is, with the exception that the players are one inch high plastic figures being flicked around a piece of cloth by fully grown adults in two halves of 15 minutes. Thankfully, there is no VAR.

Other than that it is much the same as any modern day FIFA World Cup, boasting all the colour, controversy drama and passion of the man-size game.

Tournament host and English Subbuteo Association ‘technical director’, Stewart Grant told SunSport: “We have players coming over from Australia, Brazil, Singapore and Japan and even a player from Ukraine.

“He is actually French but he lived out there before the war so he is playing for Ukraine. And there’s a team from Tunisia - the only African nation being represented.

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“There are multiple categories. There are groups, seedings and then like any other World Cup it goes into a knockout format and on to the final.

“It can get very passionate, it really can. It’s very intricate in how players flick the ball and move forwards.

“It moves at such speed that when players score they will run off pumping their arms, chests and running around.

“In the team event players bundle each other like you see on a real pitch. Players curse when they scuff a shot.

“The passion levels can get very high and there will be disagreements like there is in real football. Especially among the Continentals, who take it very seriously. This year we want that passion. We want to get in people’s faces.

“It never comes to pushing and shoving but there have been instances at local and national level where players have disagreed with something on the pitch, picked up their players and walked off.

“We are actively encouraging people to come down in England kits, bring flags. And if a goal goes in, cheer it.

“When we have gone abroad to places like Italy they all cheer their team on so much that it can be intimidating.

“This is our chance to give it back and create a cauldron, so when people play us they are scared and are nervous.

“We have got to semi-finals and quarters. But now we have the players that with the right draw, can go on and win it.”

'THREE CENTIMETRE LIONS'

England have yet to lift any of the numerous trophies up for grabs in the Veterans, Women’s, Individual, Team, Under-16 and Under-12 categories in the now biennial tournament.

The ‘Three Centimetre Lions’ have a top squad and even staged training camps in Milton Keynes to make sure nothing is left to chance or a badly positioned digit.

Vastly experienced campaigner Justin Finch once had his flicking finger insured for £50k.

Ruby Matthews is a huge star in the Under-16 category. Hadley Chapman has been playing only 18 months but is already team captain for the U12s.

The event has made it to broadcast with it being streamed live on X.

Grant, also a Youtuber, said: “There is a multi camera set up and even guest commentaries. In Tunbridge Wells they are so passionate about this game originating there.

“There are museum exhibitions, walking tours. They are so proud that the game came from there. The fact it is ‘coming home’ has brought everyone together.  We have brought Subbuteo back to where it was born.

“That’s why it’s the biggest World Cup there has ever been. It is in our backyard.”

The draw is on Friday and England have their work cut out to be crowned world champions like they were on home soil in ‘66 at Wembley under Bobby Moore.

Spain has a great player in Carlos Flores but he can’t make it. There’s a lot of relieved people out there

Stewart Grant, English Subbuteo Association ‘technical director’

Grant said: “The Italians are the best in the world. The Belgians have a great youth set up with a lot of players coming through.

“Spain has a great player in Carlos Flores but he can’t make it. There’s a lot of relieved people out there.

“Some outsiders worth watching include the Maltese, who are very professional. Their national association is recognised by their Olympic Committee. They get a lot of funding.

“Subbuteo’s a cross between football, chess and snooker. It’s sport in miniature.

“If anyone thinks we are grown men playing with toys, come down on Saturday and Sunday and you will see a completely different approach.”