Table football game, 'Soccer-2M', made in the Soviet Union, late 1980s

Table football game, consisting of an aluminium games board with polystyrene players, a steel ball, printed card box and printed paper instructions.

A pressed aluminium football pitch with round-corners, painted light blue, with the pitch marked out in white. There is a raised lip around the edge to prevent the ball from rolling off the field. There are ten white and ten orange footballers attached to the pitch on steel springs which pass into white plastic fasteners. All of the player have one leg off the floor, and each stands in a shallow, square-shaped depression. The teams' goalkeepers (moulded with a flatcap) move from side to side in an arc, controlled by a lever. The goalkeepers stand in front of a transluscent polystyrene goal. Behind each goal are two substitutes.

Box, consisting of a lid made from thin card, and a strengthening liner and a base made from thicker card. The lid is printed in black and green, and has the image a goalkeeper diving to make a save in front of a goal. It is printed with Russian script. The base and liner are made from thick grey card, the liner sits over the top of the games board, protecting the players. The base of the box is stapled to cradle the board.

Instruction leaflet, printed in Russian, German and English, with a stylised design on the front showing two opposing footballers dribbling around a large red football.

The football is a steel ball bearing.

Given by Ines Koegler

This game was purchased for the donor by her parents in 1987-1988, in Leipzig (then in East Germany), where she grew up. The donor was not very interested in football, so in 1994 she gave it to a British exchange student from Birmingham, who was staying with her family. After the donor moved to the UK in 2003, she got back in touch with the family of the exchange student, who gave her back the game. She then gave it to the Museum of Childhood in 2015 [2016/7].

Germany was divided in two following the Second World War: the Eastern portion, occupied by the Red Army of the Soviet Union, became the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), a Marxist- Leninist one party state. The DDR was the richest economy of the Eastern Bloc, though all member states were tied to the economy of the Soviet Union via the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (commonly known by the acronym COMECON). This arrangement set out in which areas the Soviet Union would choose to invest, and what products would be traded with whom. By the 1970s, the reality had become that the COMECON gave the Soviet Union the means to cheaply import raw materials from the Eastern Bloc, and then to sell poor quality consumer products back to it.

Football was a very popular game in pre-Revolutionary Russia, and continued to be after the creation of the USSR. The USSR national football team drew on a vast resource of players from the many nationalities contained within the state. Initially, the team were successful, winning the inaugural European Championships in 1960. In 1988 (around when this game was probably made) they were runners-up to the Netherlands at the European Championships held in West Germany. This was the first time the USSR had qualified for a major tournament since 1976.

Russia is one of the top countries in the world for the production of aluminium ore (bauxite), so the use of aluminium for the making of this object lends it a strong (but not immediately obvious) regional flavour.

This game is simple in principle and in design, consisting of two teams of polystyrene ‘players’, attached to the aluminium ‘pitch’ by springs. The ‘football’ (in reality a steel bearing) is moved about the pitch by twanging the ‘players’, causing them to kick it. The ball rests in shallow depressions below the ‘players’ so it doesn’t roll away. It is possible to pass the ball to your players by applying varying amounts of pressure when flicking them. The goalkeeper can be moved in an arc, from side-to-side, on a lever, to make saves.

Football was a very popular game in pre-Revolutionary Russia, and continued to be after the creation of the USSR. The USSR national football team drew on a vast resource of players from the many nationalities contained within the state. Initially, the team were successful, winning the inaugural European Championships in 1960. In 1988 (around the time when this game was probably made) they were runners-up to the Netherlands at the European Championships held in West Germany. This was the first time the USSR had qualified for a major tournament since 1976.

B.71-2015