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Subbuteo releases new Xmas Leeds Nightclub edition

Subbuteo hopes that the greater realism will see sales soar

The makers of classic table football game Subbuteo have launched their first new set for nearly 20 years in time for Xmas. Called the Nightclub Edition, it is hoped the game will attract a new generation of kids, who are now more likely to play computer games than flick small wobbly men at a ball on a felt pitch.

The Nightclub Edition is a radical departure from most new Subbuteo sets which normally herald new strips or commemorate important events such as the World Cup. This time, the company has redesigned the goals so that one is the entrance to well-known Leeds nightclub Majestyk and the other the entrance to a dark alleyway.

The set comes complete with three mini-skirted tart supporters, a police van, four policemen, an ambulance, two paramedics and city centre street lighting. Subbuteo has also gone back to its roots by replacing the white football with a brown one, featuring the face of a badly beaten up Pakistani student.

A new look for a new edition. The goals from the front of the Majestyk nightclub and a dark alleyway

The game remains exactly the same, however. Teams (the set comes with a full set of Leeds and Middlesborough football clubs) have to kick the Pakistani ball into their opposing goals. You have to flick the ball between your players, but failure to kick it to your own player or hit a player on the other side and it is their turn.

By drawing on football's increased popularity and modern players' different attitudes, the MD of Subbuteo, Eric Klanstein, hopes he can escape the game's image of something that only students, mid-life-crisis men and sad twats play and recreate its glory days of the 70s.

If it proves successful, Mr Klanstein has great plans for this classic game. "First, I will do an add-on with this edition called the Perjury Edition," he told us. "Then I hope to capture other elements of the modern game. The Cocaine Edition will pit one team against drug dealers and undercover cops. The Trophy Wife Edition will come with 10 tabloid photographers, 20 hangers-on and an entourage of hairdressers. And the Bank Edition will include a new set of rules where you can use an opponent's player if they haven't paid enough money."

The Nightclub Edition of Subbuteo is available now in all good toy stores, somewhere at the back behind the video games, Harry Potter wands and Tweenies toys. It costs £49.99.

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