Top & Best Button Football Review 2022 – How to Select Ultimate Buyer’s Guide

Button Football: How to choose the best in 2022?

Hello, welcome! Today we are going to talk all about button football, the game that is fun for football lovers of all ages and that often goes far beyond playing.

Button football may seem like something from your grandfather’s time, but the fun, we guarantee, is very current. A good kit can provide hours of a dynamic and intelligent game, which simulates rules, teams and even “real” football plays, apart from that “taste” of playing with your heart club or that dream team.

Here, in this article, we will help you choose the ideal button football game. We will show you the best in the market, their varieties, their advantages, disadvantages and even a list with criteria to guide your purchase.

First, the most important

To play a game, you need more than the buttons. A complete game takes at least one ball (or disc, or dice), one goalkeeper, and at least one pick.
There is a wide variety of “teams” that are printed on the buttons. They can represent teams, clubs and even teams from certain seasons. There are, of course, “clean” buttons, without identification.
The price varies from R $ 7, for the most basic kits, up to R $ 150, for the most complete kits and with the highest quality of material.

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The best button football games: Our recommendations

Playing button football is a leisure activity that can be shared by the whole family. In addition, it brings a whole sense of nostalgia, of having fun without needing technological devices. Below we list some of the best button football games on the market.

One button football option with briefcase
A very fun game
A basic button football kit

One button football option with briefcase

Buying Guide

Strategy, speed, accuracy, coolness … button football should not be underestimated. It is so widely recognized that today it is officially a sport, along the lines of chess, but with the theme and emotion of football.

This seriousness can be translated in the variety of buttons, in the different rules of the modalities, even in the format of “small players”. In this Buying Guide, we’ll show you all of that, as well as its pros and cons and even a little bit of its history.

What is button football?

Button football, basically, simulates a football match, to be played on a rectangular table of approximately 2 mx 1.4 m, with markings of the lines and areas proportional to that of a normal football field.

The “buttons”, which represent the players, in general are circular discs capable of sliding on the material of the table from a pressure made by the hands of the practitioners. Goalkeepers are represented by rectangular blocks.

The ball can be represented by a small circular disk, by a miniature of a ball, spherical and all, or even by a mini-dice, in alternative modalities.

Its goal and general rules are similar to those of football, as the eleven players on each side, with fouls, cards, playing time, and, of course, the maximum goal of scoring more goals than their opponent.

When and where did button football appear?

Button football is a legitimate product. Its inventor is paulista Geraldo Cardoso Décourt, who started the practice in 1930, with shirt buttons simulating players.

Geraldo himself was very important for the dissemination of the practice, marking exhibition matches, championships and other events. He himself launched the rule book, also in 1930.

In the 1950s, the game was already quite popular, and its practitioners used various materials to complete their teams, from suit buttons to watch covers, glass or acrylic.

Then, at the same time, industrial buttons, made for the so-called “Table Football”, made of plastic began to be commercialized. Then the practice broke out for good.

In 1988, button football was made official as a sports modality, as an aspect of indoor sports, as are billiards and chess, for example. Since then, table football has not only expanded commercially but also sports, spreading to federations in the country and around the world.

Today, established as a sport, button football is beginning to return to the list of activities of football lovers in some clubs and bars and specialized establishments.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of button football?

Having a kit or a button football team has its advantages. To begin with, it gives the practitioner the physical, neurological and emotional benefits of a playful activity, after all, it is a game.

Then, it’s a game with no age limit. Its operation can be as simple as football itself and its execution as light as a game of chess.

Football, moreover, as a theme, is another advantage. Button football allows you to live the passion for a club, the memory of some great squad from the past or even the fantasy of a selection of the best of all time.

However, as an activity, button football is not exactly practical like hitting a ball or even turning on a video game. There are many pieces, small and light, that need not only calm but even a strategy for their positioning within the “field”. Another disadvantage is the low popularity of its practice.

Even though it is an established sport, not everyone plays table football, and among them, not everyone has complete kits or their own teams, much less you will find a table in a square, as with chess, for example.

Benefits

Playful Activity
No age limit
Thematic

Disadvantages

Practical assembly
Popularity still low

Flat or dug buttons?

There is a basic variety in relation to the shape of the buttons, at least according to official rules. They can be smooth or dug and impact the way you play.

- Smooth . They are more massive, with the entire length of their underside touching the table. They slide more easily, and give your game greater speed and power when shooting, but have less accuracy for passes and for carrying the ball.
- Digged . As the name says, it has a cut on the underside, which ends up being concave, with only the circumference in contact with the table. Because of the air between the button and the table, they are slower, but have greater precision.

Within the cavities, there is also the division of the format, between cylindrical and conical-trunk. Simply put, this second has the sloping side walls, while the first has straight ones.

The logic is that the cylindrical gives more strength to the actions and the tapered, precision. For this reason, they are usually divided between buttons for attack (trunk) and defense (cylindrical).

Ball, disco or dice?

Another variety concerns the object that acts as the ball. It can be a miniature of a ball, being a solid plastic sphere; a puck, like a mini hockey puck, cylindrical and massive; or “dadinho”, a cube also massive.

They greatly alter the dynamics of the game with each other. The ball is obviously faster, but more difficult to control, while the disc is the opposite, privileging control, but giving more breaks to attacks.

The dice is a middle ground, with less friction than the disc, and therefore faster, but with tips the tips of the cube that slow down its sliding and make it more controllable.

Such is the difference in the games that the “balls” guide the differentiation between the official modalities of the Confederation. There are “Bola 3 Toques” and “Bola 12 Toques”, for the sphere, “Disco” and “Dadinho”, with their own rules and quite different from each other.

Clean or personalized?

Another difference that you can find on the websites and shelves is in the customization (or not) of the buttons.

Part of the success of button football lies in its ability to associate itself with the passion and memory of the fans, emulating on the buttons classic and nostalgic formations of their teams from the heart or even those that marked their life as a sports lover.

In these cases, the upper part usually contains a sticker or print simulating the shirt of the team in question, and may contain the numbering and even the name of the simulated players. The color of the buttons is usually in agreement, like yellow for our team.

But there are, of course, those “clean”, without customization, but necessarily with a color, to differentiate from the opponent set. These are recommended for those who do not want to play with a specific team, or on the contrary, several, doing the customization on their own.

How much?

The variation in the prices of the sets happens a lot due to the material, but mainly due to the number of pieces: buttons, teams, nets, balls, straws, etc.

The simplest ones can be found for around R $ 7, and the most complete, with transport case, for up to R $ 150.

Where to buy?

You can find quality models and sets at many physical toy stores, such as RiHappy and PBKids. For “big” players, some specialized establishments sell sets with specific teams and even place orders.

On the internet, the range of kits and prices is greater. Stores like Amazon and Mercado Livre have sets with different numbers of teams, while in Classic Buttons, greater care with the details of shirts and badges.

Purchasing criteria: Factors for comparing button football kit models

now brings the best selection criteria, to eliminate any doubts when buying your button football kit. They were designed based on elements of the product and aspects of its use:

Goal
Material
Set
Case

We will explain each of these items, how they are suited to their use and how they impact the time of purchase.

Goal

There are many versatile sets, which are equally beautiful, fun and suitable for competitive matches, but knowing what the purpose will be, or at least the most common use, helps you choose the most suitable game.

This is especially true for those who want to participate in competitions, because there are standards of size and shape. The diameter, for example, must be a maximum of 6 cm, and cylindrical or stem-conical buttons.

Material

If in field football you have the best boots, shin guards and gloves, in table football efficiency starts with the quality of the material in your set.

Acrylic resin buttons, well polished to slide smoothly, dense, flexible and resistant reeds for greater control of the pieces, as well as massive block goalkeepers for greater stability, all of which must be taken into account.

Set

A simple criterion. Give priority to the most complete and numerous sets. They are small pieces and constantly transported, and losing them is not a rarity. Extra balls, goals, reeds, the higher the number, the better.

In addition, a greater number of buttons, in addition to a precaution, is more fun for those who like characterized teams, being able to explore the “talisman” of that their dream team or their lucky shirt number.

Case

The button football set is always being assembled and disassembled, even to be better preserved. So, look for those with more worked cases, packaging, bags or boxes.

Soft lining to preserve or buttons, easy and resistant opening, spaces that leave the parts stable and with easy access, all this helps to increase the product’s life and make the experience more pleasant.