It’s safe to say that the last couple of seasons have been underwhelming from a Spurs perspective in the Premier League. To be honest, that’s probably an understatement. All the promise that Big Ange brought has appeared to evaporate as his side languishes just outside the relegation zone, with only the sheer ineptitude of the three relegated teams keeping them out of trouble.
Yes, there’s been a deep Europa League run, but that feels like scant reward at a time when Arsenal are going far into Champions League campaigns and taking part in title races. Well, attempting to take part in title races. So, to assuage the doom and gloom of what has been a rough 2024-2025, it might be best to have a look at an oddity of Spurs’ history.
That oddity would be the day that it was announced that there would be a third kit released AND a licensed Tottenham Hotspur video game for consoles like the Xbox and PS2. What was this all about, and why do we not have our own licensed console games in 2025?
Sports-Themed Games: Big Sellers for Game Providers and Casino Operators
Everyone knows that football games are big business when it comes to consoles. The FIFA series, now known simply as FC, is one of the highest-selling franchises ever. Every year, new editions sell millions of copies as football fans flock to them. Then, there are games like eFootball, previously known as Pro Evolution Soccer, that are less popular but still big names.
Now, away from the console, it’s no different. Football games and sports-themed titles in general are increasingly popular. Even at online casinos, you will regularly find plenty of different games with a sports theme. For example, at Karamba casino, you can play games like Football Studio Dice and Football Lucky Tap. There’s even a darts-themed game, the World Darts Championship.
Basically, sports games tend to be money-printers. Look at the furore over Football Manager not releasing their 2025 edition as evidence of just how committed the fanbases are for these franchises. That does beg the question, though; what happened to the Spurs video game, and why have so few people heard of it? In fact, it’s likely you don’t know the name of it yet.
Club Football – A Strange Licensed Video Game Venture That Never Took Off
Club Football 2005 Tottenham Hotspur was the name of the game that was released more than 20 years ago now. In October of 2004, the club hosted an event to display the brand new third kit and to also announce the brand new edition of Club Football. According to the Spurs website, four competition winners were invited to play the game against centre-back Noé Pamarot.
Paramot had just recently scored his one Premier League goal in a 1-0 win against Everton. Considering that Ange’s men only beat relegated Southampton in the league in April, the club would struggle to find someone for the competition winners to play against if they did it now. It’s been a tough end to the season for everyone associated with the Spurs.
And it was a tough time for anyone associated with Club Football 2005. The game never really caught fire. It was a stripped-back version of the FIFA games, and each edition was licensed to one specific club, meaning you could only play with that one team. The graphics were poor and the gameplay clunky, meaning that it was never sold in great numbers.
A Video Game Series We Likely Will Never See Again
It is telling that so few have heard of Club Football, when games like Sensible World of Soccer and Championship Manager still hold a real sense of nostalgia. The game was licensed for a number of clubs, one of which was Birmingham City. That really limited the audience for the games to the fans of the clubs in the game.
Nevertheless, it’s an interesting bit of club history that seems bizarre to remember. If nothing else, it gives us a chance to feel a little bit warmer about this season. That 2004-05 campaign saw us finish outside of the European spots – Groundhog Day comes to mind – but we also didn’t really have any long runs in any competitions. At least we have that.
