Road to Wembley (1952)

The game simulates the passage of English football teams on their way to winning the FA cup. The game has a series of cards which represent each of the clubs, and are dealt out to the players at the start of the game. The clubs go through an elimination cup series, with money being earned for victories, which can be spent on tokens representing star players. The winner of each match is determined by the roll of a die to represent goals scored, modified by the number of star players. Different dice with various number combinations are used to weight the chances such that a premier division team will usually beat a lower division team.

Subsequently published under title Wembley by Gibson Games.

As the years went by, Wembley was not only published with new box graphics, the boards were changed as well. This was important because, in the intervening years, a team might be in the Third Division in one version but in the First Division in another version. So this game reflected the change in fortune of various clubs. Some teams had sunk so low that they were dropped from the game altogether, making room for new clubs. It was always a bit special if your home-town team was in your version.