Fantomens Football Game

The Fantomens Fotbollsspel Kick Off (which translates to Phantoms Football Game Kick Off) was issued by Semic Press in Sweden with Fantomen comic number 25 in 1953. The illustrated football game (or soccer as it’s also known) was a free inclusion with the comic. The pullout section in the center of the comic was the playing board while the back cover provided the gaming pieces.

The playing board is found in the center fold of the comic across 2 pages.

The back cover of the comic is titled ‘Spelbrickor och regler till kick-off spelet’, which translates to ‘Game tiles and rules for the kick-off game’.

The instructions translated read:

  1. First stick the leaf on cardboard.
  2. Cut out the 12 tiles on this side, which represents the team in the Allsvenskan.
  3. Two players, A and B, participate in the match. Player A takes the A tiles and player B the B tiles.
  4. Both players place a tile on No. 1, and the game has started.
  5. The players roll a die. The one who gets highest number starts the game.
  6. The same player rolls another die and advances as many squares as the die shows eyes. Immediately afterwards, the opponent makes a dice roll.
  7. When a player places a tile on a red square, he moves forward as many steps as indicated in this box. If, on the other hand, he ends up on black square, he must go back so many step, as the number in the box indicates.
  8. The players roll the dice in turn and the attack is decided, when a player succeeds in placing his tile in the box marked ‘Mal’ (Target Box).
  9. Note! To score a goal, you have to get exactly in the Málrutan. A player who e.g. stands at 80 and turns up five eyes with the die, can’t score. On the contrary, in this case he must advance two steps and then go back three (2-3-5). He must then continue until he hits exactly as many eyes as are needed to enter the Target Box.
  10. When a player scores a goal, he places a new tile at 1, and the game continues.
  11. The players themselves can agree on how long the match should last. At halftime and fulltime, they count their goals, and that’s how the winner is decided.