England to host World Cup 2024... the Subbuteo Table Football World Cup, that is

Football is finally coming home – to a table near you.

The chance to end nearly 60 years of hurt will be in the hands of Subbuteo players when England hosts the 2024 Table Football World Cup.

Our Three Lions tabletop battlers will be pitting their fancy fingerwork against rivals from 31 nations.

A £50,000 fundraising drive has been kicked off to host the tournament. The Sunday People has made a donation to get the ball rolling.

Today we’re urging sport-mad Brits to get behind the competition.

Organiser Alan Lee, 51, is thrilled by England’s chance of lifting its first football World Cup since Bobby Moore in 1966. And to give the team luck its mascot has been inspired by 1966’s World Cup Willie.

Alan, the England Subbuteo Association vice chairman, played for four years from age 12, including in national championships.

He said: “I came back to it three years ago and I haven’t looked back. I love the social ­aspect – we go all over Britain and Europe to play. I started up a team and the dream is to win our own World Cup in 2024. That would be great.

“I’ve been speaking to people all over the world about it, even people in Brazil, and they’re all really excited about the World Cup being held here.”

Alan said there are about three million “dormant” players in England. In the early 80s around seven million people played here. He said: “It’s massive for the game in this country.”

A bid was lodged last month with the world governing body, the Federation International Sports Table Football, to host the competition in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

The game was invented at nearby Langton Green in March 1947 by Peter Adolph after he was demobbed from the RAF.

Gerry Harrington, 61, of Haverhill, Suffolk, where Valter Baroncini, Marco