Mean Arena

Mean Arena was a strip created by Tom Tully and John Richardson which debuted in 2000 AD prog 178. The reader is transported to London in the year 2025, where the hugely popular and insanely dangerous sport of street football is a cash bonanza for the advertising companies, but a near-death experience for the players. One of the most determined is Matt Tallon (pictured), who plays for Slater's Slayers but has a mission beyond that of achieving championship glory: he wants to avenge his brother's untimely demise. To get to the point where he can do this he'll have to battle teams such as the Southampton Sharks (whose heads protrude from the mouths of huge artificial shark heads, because all the teams take a theme and then flog it to within an inch of its life), and Mother Vlad's Vampires (not featured: Luis Suárez). The series ran to 72 episodes and spawned a sequel series, in 1993, by Alan McKenzie and Anthony Williams.