Greatest footie flick named

Football and film fans are well known for arguing over all-time lists - so it was only a matter of time before pollsters combined the two.

11:23 21 June 2004

Football and film fans are well known for arguing over all-time lists - so it was only a matter of time before pollsters combined the two.

As such we can now reveal that "Escape to Victory" is officially the greatest football film of all time.

In 1981, double Oscar winner Michael Caine teamed up with Oscar nominated Sylvester Stallone, they were joined by FIFA's player of the 20th Century (Pele) and the man many consider to be the finest defender of all time (Bobby Moore), and a film was made.

The all-star quartet played prisoners of war who used a football match in Nazi-occupied Paris as an opportunity to escape.

International hit "Bend it Like Beckham" was second.

"The Football Factory", released in May this year, came tenth in the list compiled by UCI Cinemas, in which more than 2,000 people voted.

Lianne Butterfield, a spokeswoman for UCI commented: "As a nation we love football, and films about our favourite passion have always been popular with cinemagoers.

"'Escape to Victory' and 'Bend it Like Beckham' are great feel-good films that everyone can enjoy, even if they don't understand the offside rule."

Surprisingly "Dave Basset England Manager" did not make the top ten and, less surprisingly, neither did 1999's "Soccer Dog: The Movie".

The top ten in full:
1 - Escape to Victory
2 - Bend it Like Beckham
3 - Fever Pitch
4 - When Saturday Comes
5 - I.D.
6 - Cup Fever
7 - The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
8 - There's Jimmy Grimble
9 - Mean Machine
10 - The Football Factory