F.I.S.T.F. Community Independent Blog

WASPA 1

2011-05-26T05:08:00.000+02:00

Simon Hutchinson, Kevin Nieman, Wayne Smith, Dominic Hutchinson

On Friday May 22, 2011, the Southern California Subbuteo Club was honored to be the hosts of the first ever World Amateur Subbuteo Players Association tournament, WASPA 1.

It was a highly entertaining tournament, and all kinds of WASPA firsts were achieved, including:

First goal in a WASPA tournament: Dominic Hutchinson.
First win in a WASPA tournament: Simon Hutchinson.
First person to score seven goals in a WASPA tournament: Kevin Nieman.
First person to win a WASPA tournament: Wayne Smith.

Kevin summed up everyone's feelings when he said "I must say that this was one of the most enjoyable tournaments I've ever played. I wish for all WASPA participants to have all the fun and excitement we had. This is what makes Subbuteo fun!"

You can read all about this tournament on the WASPA 1 tournament page here»

Season 11 finishes

2011-04-15T18:08:00.000+02:00

The Southern California Subbuteo Club's Season 11 finished on Friday April 8, 2011.

Wayne Smith's team, Hannover 96, had won the League championship two weeks before, on match day 6. But the winners of the Runners Up cup and the Wooden Spoon was only decided on the last day.

The loser of the game between Kevin Nieman's Perdenti Glorioso and Dominic Hutchinson's Kumba would win the Wooden Spoon, and the winner of the game between Jason Mitchell's Hollywood Hammers and Simon Hutchinson's Simi City would win the Runners Up cup. Both games were decided by single goals, and Perdenti Glorioso and Simi City were victorious.

Jason Mitchell was voted "Player of the Season" to recognize his performance this season. He was just a goal away from finishing in second place this season, a big improvement on finishing second from bottom last season.

The winners

Congratulations to all the winners:

League champions: Hannover 96, Wayne Smith on right.
Runners Up cup: Simi City, Simon Hutchinson second on right.
Wooden Spoon winner: Kumba, Dominic Hutchinson, on left.
Player of the Season: Jason Mitchell, second on left.

All the reports, photographs, scores and tables can be found on the Season 11 page.

Final day of the belgian individual league

2011-04-12T11:33:00.000+02:00

On April 16, the club of JSC Rochefort will host the play-offs of the belgian individual leagues. The top 6 players of each division are qualified for the tournament. The players are:

Division 1: Sami Targui, Christophe Dheur, David Ruelle, Valéry Dejardin, Justin Leroy, Arnaud Nullens.

Division 2: Vito Di Ruggiero, Jérôme Heyvaert, Olivier Saffer, David Fraikin, Jos Ceulemans, Benoît Vanwissen.

Division 3: Maxime Muraille, Justin Thiry, Bart Van De Vliet, Geert Leys, David Vantassel, Terry San.

Division 4: Emilie Despretz, Steffen Despretz, Olivier Carion, Matthias Mastroianni, Thibault Recule, Pol Verhaeghe.

Heathens' Open

2011-02-19T18:14:00.002+01:00

On Saturday February 19 the Southern California Subbuteo Club played the Heathen's Open, the first American Subbuteo Association tournament to be held on the west coast of the USA in 2011.

The turn out was small enough that the tournament was played in a "round robin" format, where everyone plays each other once.

Wayne Smith won the tournament, and all of his games. His record of consecutive ASA Open wins is impressive, with his winning streak goes back to 2005.

In the last round of games Kevin Nieman won his only game to snatch second place from the fancied Simon Hutchinson. Simon finished in third place with the same number of points as his son, Dominic. David Jensen was the only player not to win a game, and he finished in last place.

The final table, results, photographs, and reports from all of the games can be found here»

Why was the tournament called the Heathen's Open? Check the web page to see why.

Season 10 finished

2011-02-18T23:59:00.001+01:00

The Southern California Subbuteo Club's Season 10 finished on Febraury 18, 2011.

VfL Osnaflick won the league championship, winning all but one of their games. Perdenti Glorioso, surprised everyone with their strong play, finished in second. West Germany 1990 missed their chance to share second place by losing their last game of the season, finished in third. Simi City won their last three games to share third with the Germans. Red Star finished in fourth, Hollywood Hammers in fifth, and Kumba finished last.

The League Cup final had the league champions, Osnaflick, facing the Hammers. The Hammers had caused two "cupsets" earlier beating Simi City in the first round, and Red Star in the semi final. The result of the final did not accurately show how close the final was.

The winners

Dominic Hutchinson (left) as Kumba: Wooden Spoon.
Kevin Nieman (center) as Perdenti Glorioso: Runners up cup and "Player of the Season".
Wayne Smith (right) as VfL Osnaflick: League champions and League Cup winners.

Final league table, results, photographs, and all the reports for Season 10 can be found here»

Subbuteo Across America 2011

2011-01-18T08:43:00.002+01:00

The second Subbuteo Across America will be held on Saturday April 30 and Sunday May 1, 2011.

This year's event will raise money for the American Cancer Society.

We would like to invite all the Subbuteo players and clubs in North America (Canada, Mexico, USA) to take part in this worthwhile event.

Last year 54 players took part, playing 93 games, and raised $204.91. Let's see if we can beat those numbers this year.

For more information and to become part of this historic event go to the Subbuteo Across America web page at SoCalSubbuteo.com/SubbuteoAcrossAmerica or SubbuteoAcrossAmerica.tk.

All participating players will be included in the Subbuteo Across America Roll of Honor.

Note: Twin clubs of the Southern California Subbuteo Club may also take part.

Last game of 2010 & first game of 2011 played in So Cal

2011-01-01T17:17:00.001+01:00

With less than half an hour left in 2010 Southern California Subbuteo Club members Dominic and Simon Hutchinson decided to become the last people to play Subbuteo in 2010 and the first to play in 2011.

Their Indoor Edition game kicked off shortly before 11:50 PM, on 31 December, 2010. The first and second quarters of the game were completed before midnight.

After a few moments to toast the New Year the game resumed, with the third and fourth quarters played on 1 January, 2011.

Dominic also becomes the first player to win in 2011, as he defeated his father 4-2.

For more details see here»

New American Subbuteo Association web site

2010-12-22T20:13:00.000+01:00

The American Subbuteo Association has launched a new web site to replace their previous one that was hacked in September.

The new site keeps the same URL, www.AmericanSubbuteo.com, as before.

There is also a new forum. A link to it can be found on the pages of the new web site. Or it can be reached directly by using this URL, americansubbuteo.proboards.com.

California State Championship 2010

2010-12-06T00:58:00.003+01:00

The 2010 California State Championship was played on 20 November in Simi Valley.

This year's winners were:
- State Champion - Wayne Smith
- Missions trophy - Steve Tucker
- Sierra trophy (U19) - Dominic Hutchinson

Wayne Smith has won the State Championship for all four years this tournament has been played.

The runners up spot, and the Missions trophy, was a three way race that went down to the last round of games. Steve Tucker won his last game and finished ahead of Simon Hutchinson and Kevin Nieman, who shared third place.

Dominic Hutchinson was awarded the Sierras trophy as the only under 19 player present. He also deserves an honorable mention for his performance.

A full report and photographs can be found here»

State Champion

Wayne Smith

Missions trophy winner

Steve Tucker

Sierras trophy winner

Dominic Hutchinson

F.I.S.T.F. International Tour 2010/2011 - November

2010-11-07T09:08:00.006+01:00

Satellite of Sassoeiros 2010 (Portugal)

Date: 7 November 2010
Website: http://subbuteonoticia.blogspot.com/2010/10/satelite-de-sassoeiros.html

International Open of Rochefort 2010 (Belgium)

Date: 13-14 November 2010
Website: http://www.jscrochefort.be/lieu1.php

International Open of Gibraltar 2010 (Gibraltar)

Date: 13-14 November 2010

Website: none

Grand Prix of Berlin 2010 (Germany)

Date: 27-28 November 2010

Website: http://www.gpberlin.de.vu/

Last edition's video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1JvcdZbcC4

Arnie's message for State Championship

2010-10-15T19:35:00.004+02:00

In advance of the 2010 California State Championship, 20 November, the Governor of the State of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger sent a message to the players taking part to wish them "every success".

You can see his message here»

Season 9 comes to an end

2010-09-14T18:51:00.001+02:00

On September 3 the Southern California Subbuteo Club finished Season 9. In seven months the five players had played a combined total of 136 league and cup games.

While there was never any doubt about who would win the championship, the league did throw up a number of closely fought finishes. The battle for second - fourth places was decided on the penultimate night of the season. The fifth place finisher had only one more point than the two who shared sixth. The winner of the Wooden spoon was not decided until the penultimate night in a game between the last and the second from last.

The winners...

League champions Wayner Bremen (Wayne Smith)	Wooden spoon Valley Irons (Jason Mitchell)
League Cup Wayner Bremen (Wayne Smith)	Player of the season Dominic Hutchinson

More details, including league table, results, reports, photographs, and videos, can be found here»

Twinning: Switzerland - USA

2010-08-14T06:39:00.002+02:00

Trisha Baumeler (SCAHZ) and Dominic Hutchinson (SCSC)

Thomas Baumeler (SCAHZ) and Steve Tucker (SCSC)

On Friday 13 August, 2010, the Southern California Subbuteo Club, USA, and the Subbuteo Club Anfield Hoppers Zürich, Switzerland, announced that they had become "twin clubs".

"Due to our friendship with Trisha and Thomas Baumeler it was natural for the twinning of our two clubs," Simon Hutchinson of the Southern California Subbuteo Club, SCSC, explained.

In August 2009 while on vacation in the western USA the Baumelers had visited with the SCSC, played Subbuteo, beat them, and become friends.

"We are very happy over the fact that we've got very nice friends in our favorite holiday destination," Thomas told us. "We're very interested to continue the twin club friendship with the SCSC. Because we like the members of SCSC a lot. Even if we can't visit every year, it's super we can take part in causes like Subbuteo Across America."

You can learn more about both club's from their websites:

Southern California Subbuteo Club (http://SoCalSubbuteo.com)
SC Anfield Hoppers Zürich (http://AnfieldHoppers.jimdo.com)

ASA Open August 2010

2010-08-10T17:37:00.003+02:00

The American Subbuteo Association Open held by the Southern California Subbuteo Club on Saturday August 7, 2010, was the highest scoring tournament in the history of the club. The seven players managed to score 56 goals in 21 games, an average of 2.67 goals per game.

Wayne Smith's streak of Open wins continued as he finished in first place again, having won all six of his games.

In an exciting finish Simon Hutchinson claimed second place on goal difference from Steve Tucker, who had impressed everyone by his play as he had not flicked for six months.

David Jensen's victory over Kevin Nieman allowed him to finish in fourth place, with Kevin finishing in fifth.

Dominic Hutchinson resolute defending and goalkeeping may not have won him any game, but it did allow him to tie three games and finish in sixth place. John Carroll's defense was not so robust and he finished in seventh, with two ties.

A full report of this tournament can be found on the ASA Open August 2010 page
(Photographs and video will be added later)

ASA Open 17 April, 2010

2010-04-21T05:19:00.001+02:00

It may have been the smallest American Subbuteo Association Open in southern California in four years but it was described as a "Cracking tournament" by the organizer Simon Hutchinson.

Wayne Smith won his 16th consecutive Open tournament, beating Simon in the final. And David Jensen claimed third place winning a shoot out in "sudden death" against Dominic Hutchinson.

The group stage saw several games that almost ended in upsets. Dominic gave his father, Simon, a shock by taking a very early lead. Wayne had a tough time breaking through David's defense. Simon scored an early goal on Wayne, and then hung onto this slender lead until midway through the second half.

All the scores, match reports, and photographs can be found on the ASA Open April 2010 page»

FISTF Satellite of California

2010-03-18T16:27:00.001+01:00

After a year's hiatus the Western States Open returned to California as part of the Southern California Subbuteo Club's 25th anniversary celebrations. This year's tournament was special as it was also a FISTF Satellite, the first time a FISTF santioned tournament had been played in the Golden State.

Wayne Smith became the first person to win the WSO four times. He cruised through the group stage and the barrage rounds winning all of his games, scoring 17 and conceding only three goals in five games. David Jensen finished runner up, the second time he has been a beaten finalist. In the third place play off game John Carroll bested Simon Hutchinson by a single goal.

Kevin Nieman beat Dominic Hutchinson in the Mary Jane, Consolation, tournament final to claim his second Mary Jane win in as many tournaments. Sean Daly finished third.

You can see photographs, results, and read the match reports on the Western States Open 2010 page.

The winners
Open winner Wayne Smith	Mary Jane (Consolation) winner Kevin Nieman

ASA Open February 20, 2010

2010-02-25T16:49:00.002+01:00

The first American Subbuteo Association Open of the year to be hosted by the Southern California Subbuteo Club was played on Saturday February 20, in Simi Valley.

The day started with six players, but after three games Dominic Hutchinson was taken ill and had to withdraw from the tournament. His remaining games were awarded as 3-0 wins to his opponents.

Wayne Smith won his umpteenth Open, winning all of his games and only conceding two goals.

Steve Tucker finished in second place, a remarkable feat as he had not flicked a Subbuteo figure for six months.

Simon Hutchinson rounded out the top three, losing to Steve in the Open semi final. He played even though he had been in a serious car accident six days earlier and was under the influence of strong pain killers, that delayed his reactions time.

Kevin Nieman won the "Mary Jane" final. He had been in second place until the last round of games in the Group stage, when Simon beat him and consigned him to the bottom half of the Group.

David Jensen finished "Mary Jane" runner up in a spirited final, that was decided in over time.

A full report of this tournament and photographs can be found on the ASA Open February 2010 page»

Best photographs of 2009

2010-02-11T17:00:00.002+01:00

The Southern California Subbuteo Club have picked their "Best Photographs of 2009", and put them into the slide show above. You can see a larger version of the show here»

There are plenty more slide shows of photographs and videos on the SCSC's photographs page»

Subbuteo across America

2010-02-04T14:35:00.002+01:00

On Saturday May 22, 2010, we will be holding the first Subbuteo across America day to raise money for the Red Cross.

We would like to encourage all of the Subbuteo players in the USA and Canada to take part in this historic occasion, and help raise money for a very worthy charity.

All you do is play Subbuteo, on May 22, and send us your donation. We will gather all of the donations and send them on to the Red Cross.
Note: Players under 18 do not have to send a donation.

If you are a member of a Subbuteo/Table Soccer club please encourage all the other members of the club to take part.
If you play with friends and family then please encourage them to take part.
If there are no other Subbuteo players near you then you can play solo games.

What is important is that you play Subbuteo on the day, even if it is only one game.

If you would like to take part contact us using the Contact page on the Southern California Subbuteo Club's websitehere»

For more information check the Subbuteo across America micro site here»

Yes, it is a long URL which is why we have the shorter: http://SubbuteoAcrossAmerica.tk that will take you to the same page.

Thank you

Carlos Flores again

2010-01-21T05:46:00.001+01:00

30 players attended the tournament of El Prat (near barcelona). Carlos Flores beat Angel Valverde in the sudden death of the final (3-2) while the Real Murcia won the team event.

Martin Hodds wins

2010-01-21T05:29:00.000+01:00

14 players attended the Huntingdon Open last sunday. Martin Hodds was the final winner. The Yorkshire Phoenix player beat Kevin Dyson in the final (1-1 & shots). Adrian Curtis and Russel Geraghty were the semi-finalists.

The Greek cup for Nikos Beis

2010-01-18T18:29:00.001+01:00

The 26th Greek national cup was held this week-end. Almost 100 players were taking part. Int he teams section, Falcons won the trophy. Olympia was the finalist while Atlas and Pireas Lions were the semi-finalists.

Int he Open category, Nikos Beis was the winner as he beat Giorgos Koutis in the final. Hantzaras and Stamokostas lost in the semis.

Finally, the U15 tournament came to a logical end as Giannis Vlassopoulos beat Koulosousas int he final. Dimopoulos and Bourtsonis lost in the semis.

The cup for Matzinger

2010-01-18T14:21:00.000+01:00

This weekend the Austrian Cup for Individuals and Teams was played in Traiskirchen. 27 players took part in the individual competition. In a close final Markus Matzinger (TFC Mattersburg) won the title against Guenther Bamberzly (TFC Wr. Neustadt) win a score of 2-1. Robert Lenz and Thorsten Korzil (both TFC Mattersburg) reached the semis.
In the team competition the 2 top seeded teams (TFC Mattersburg and TFC Wr. Neustadt) reached the final. The first halft ended 1-1 (goal difference 1-1). In the middle of the second half Mattersburg scored 3 goals on 3 different tables (in 2 minutes) and the final score was 3 vs 0. Details: Lenz vs Pawlica 1-0, Matzinger vs Blümel 2-0, Leitner vs Bamberzky 1-0, Korzil vs Hinkelmann 1-1. TFC Mattersburg B and TFC Wr. Neustadt B reached the semi-finals.

Sergio Ramos again!

2010-01-12T05:01:00.003+01:00

Portuguese player Sergio Ramos (SS Lazio) won his second Satellite in one month this week-end as he managed to beat Gianfranco Calonico in the final of the Rome tournament in Italy (2-0). The team event was also very tight but finally, the guys from Virtus 4 Strade Rieti won the title after beating CCT Roma in the final.

Bessim Golger wins the Grand Prix of Belgium

2010-01-11T06:54:00.003+01:00

Despite of the bad weather, a good field of players took part to the Belgian Grand Prix on sunday. Many surprises occured int he Open category but finally, there were many interesting games at all levels. In the Open sception, Bessim Golger (SC Charleroi) defeated Eric Verhagen (Mattersburg) to win the title. Pascal Scheen and Massimo Cremona were the semi-finalists. There was a big surprise in the veterans as Marco Leeman beat Gianluca Galeazzi in the final The winners in the other categories were Elodie Bertholet (ladies), Jovi Willeijns (U19), Jérémi Gosset (U15) and Kenny De Schuyteneer (U12).

Milano wins in Belgium

2010-01-09T18:44:00.003+01:00

The italian team of Stella Artois Milano won the final of the Grand Prix of Belgium in Temploux. They beat the club of Stembert. Rochefort TS & Temploux reached the semis.

Farewell to the "Noughties"

2010-01-01T02:58:00.002+01:00

The Southern California Subbuteo Club played their last tournament of the decade on Sunday 27 December. The "noughties" have been an exciting decade for the SCSC as their membership has steadily increased to form a group of "regulars" and larger group of "tournament only" players.

It was a treat for the "regulars" to welcome John Carroll and Sean Daly to the Subbuteo table again. Sean and Wayne Smith were the only two players taking part in the competition who were members of the club at the start of the decade.

Full report and photographs»

2010 Tournaments

2009-12-22T16:17:00.004+01:00

Next year, 2010, is the twenty fifth anniversary of the founding of the Southern California Subbuteo Club.

As a way of marking our silver jubilee the SCSC will be holding six American Subbuteo Association (ASA) and two FISTF tournaments. The FISTF tournaments are the first to be held in the Golden State.

The tournaments are:

Saturday February 20 : ASA Open in Simi Valley
Saturday March 13 : Western States Open (ASA Open and FISTF Satellite) in Porter Ranch, Los Angeles
Saturday April 17 : ASA Open in Simi Valley
Saturday August 7 : ASA Open in Porter Ranch, Los Angeles
Saturday September 25 : California State Championship (ASA Open and FISTF Future) in Simi Valley
Saturday November 13 : ASA Open in Simi Valley

Everyone is welcome to attend all or any of the above tournaments. To let us know you will be attending a tournament either email us or use Contact page on our web site.

The dutch cup for Robbert Thoen

2009-12-21T13:00:00.001+01:00

On December 19, 2009 the National Dutch Cup was won by Robbert Thoen. In the final he beat friend and teammate Marco Leeman with 1-0. The 3rd place was going to Nico Marks. He won with 3-1 from Paul Brinker.

Pierre De Leeuw is the king in Templeuve

2009-12-21T12:38:00.004+01:00

56 players attended the Templeuve national tournament this saturday. The host club was celebrating their 20th birthday and unfortunately many last minute drop-outs were registered because of the snow. Even the trains coming to the Tournai station were late so the start of the tournament was postponed by 30 minutes. In the main category, because of the drop-ous, there were only 6 players taking part. After a groupe stage, Pierre De Leeuw (Charleroi) and Rémi Soret (France) came on top and played the final. Pierre De Leeuw won the game 4-3 to win the tournament for the second time. Justin Leroy was 3rd. In the B-category, Rémy Huynh (Rochefort TS) defeated home player Geoffrey Marain in the final (1-0). In the C-category, Eric Threis (Stembert) won the final against Benoît Léonard (Rochefort TS). Threis was playing his first tournament in 20 years! Jos Ceulemans (SC Flanders) beat Bruno Goset (Stembert) in the final of the veterans. In the U15 category, Jérémie Gosset (AS Hennuyer) had no pain to beat David Vantassel in the final. The consolation tournaments were won by Julien Dardenne (B-category), Jean-Luc Platiaux (C-category) and Matthias Mastroianni (U15).

A very open tournament in Madrid

2009-12-21T12:38:00.003+01:00

Giuseppe Guzzetta (Catania, Italy) won the 2nd Satellite of Madrid held this sunday in a shopping center int he center of the city. Guzzetta beat Paolo Finardi (Warriors Torino). Semi-finalists were Claudio Dogali and Emilio Richichi. The Madrid Satellites were very successful with 50 & 51 players on each day!

Marcos Kapsambelis wins the Satellite of Athens

2009-12-21T12:37:00.000+01:00

The second greek Satellite of the season was organized this week-end by the club of Roligans. 54 players competed, which is a good number for a Satellite. In the team event, 5 teams were competing and the team of Pireas Lions won the tournament. They had the same number of points as the B-team of Roligans but they had a better number of individual wins. Christos Kourouklis(Roligans) beat his club mate Marios Bourtzonis in the final of the U12 event. In the ladies we had also 6 players and Eleftheria Papanikolaou (Roligans) beat Xiki violetta in the final with a score 1-0. 13 veterans participated in the category. Dimitris Kourambas (Olympia) lifted his first ever trophy beating in the final Chris Aggelinas (AS Hennuyer). In the main event on sunday, there were 34 Open players. The favorites went all the way and Marcos Kapsambelis (seed 2) doubled his victories for the season beating Giorgos Papadopoulos (seed 1) in the final. Giorgos Tsombanidis and Eugene Plytas reached the semis. The tournament was played with the presence of the TV Channel "TRT Turk" and some kids played their first tournament ever thanks to the efforts of the Roligans club, which introduces the game to a lot of young players. Congratulations to Giorgos Dimakeas and his clubmates for their efforts.

Sergio Ramos wins in Madrid

2009-12-20T16:54:00.001+01:00

The first Satellite of Madrid was played this saturday with a big field of players. Sergio Ramos (Portugal) beat Giuliano Gazzoldi from Italy 4-1 in the final. José Ros and Nicky Napolitano were the semi-finalists. The team event (8 teams) was nice as well with a final victory for the team of Real Murcia B. They beat the Italians of Sanremo in the final. Brescia and Fiamme Azzurre lost in the semis.

Most bizarre goal ever?

2009-12-14T20:08:00.001+01:00

This video includes what be one of the most bizarre goals scored in Subbuteo. It is a Subbuteo "Indoor Edition" game is between Dominic Hutchinson and Jason Mitchell, and the video is of the third quarter of the game. Dominic bangs the ball against the end wall and somehow it bounces into Jason’s goal.

You can see a larger version of this video and many others on the Southern California Subbuteo Club’s web site.

Daniele Bertelli wins the Christmas tournament

2009-12-14T13:47:00.001+01:00

As always, a lot of players attended the Christmas tournament organized by the club of Stella Artois Milano. Daniel Bertelli (Pisa) won the final against Francesco Torano (Bologna) while Bruno Mazzeo and Roberto Rocchi were the semi-finalists. Patrizio Boscolo won the consolation tournament. The club of Master Sanremo won the team event after beating Pisa in the semi-final and Milano in the final. Carlo Alessi won the veterans, Luca Zambello was the best U15 and Paolo Zambello won the U12 section. Doriana Illiano won the ladies final.

Some news from the Greek Open

2009-12-13T11:14:00.003+01:00

The Greek Open was played this week-end in Athens. On saturday, the team tournament was played by 13 teams and Falcons Athens beat Pireas Lions in the final. Among the 18 veterans, Lazaros Papakonstantinou was the winner after he beat Chris Aggelinas in the final.
On sunday, there ware 69 players in the Open category. Spyros Hantzaras won his 2nd Open (the first win was in December 2008, almost one year day by
day) as he beat Velissarios Fragakis int he final. Kostas Triantafillou and Kostas Sesses were the semi-finalists. Vaggelis Bairas (U15) and Giannis Vlassopoulos (U12) dominated their respective categories. Finally, the great news from the week-end was that the organizers made possible to host the first ladies tournament ever in Greece. 9 girls competed in the event and Dionysia Koulosousa (Pireas Lions) won the final against Eirini Patrikiou (Roligans). Well done to the greek association for such a nice achievement.

A baby in Malta

2009-12-11T13:39:00.002+01:00

A short notice to congratulate Stefan pace and his wife Ritianne for the birth of their second children. Mireille (aged 3) has a little brother called Zach born on November 17th.

Eric Verhagen of course!

2009-12-06T11:31:00.003+01:00

Eric Verhagen won the individual Grand Prix of Austria this saturday in Vienna. The Dutchman beat Lucio Canicchio from Italy in the final. Thorsten Korzil and Manfred Pawlica reached the semis. Erich Hinkelmann beat Horst Deimel in the final of the veterans while Alexander Haas beat Czech Republic's Jiri Cevela in U19 final. Top favorite Diego Tagliaferri won the U15 tournament.

On sunday the team of TFC Mattersburg won the team tournament. The Austrians beat... TFC Mattersburg B in the final!

SA championships

2009-12-03T13:10:00.001+01:00

The South African Championships were held on 28/29 November 2009. They were the third annual SA Table Football Championships held at Panorama Sports Club. A record field of 35 players flicked off and competed in the following categories: Under 11, Under 13 and Seniors. The Under 11’s flicked off on Saturday and 20 youngsters competed in five groups of four players. This competition was held on brand new smaller designed ‘FLICK-OFF’ pitches (six-a-side). The smaller fields have proved to be a tremendous success with the juniors with a lot more flicking and interaction between the players taking place. Each player received a commemorative soccer ball.
The Janus Gersie-Fair play award was handed to Daygin Prescott for exceptional sportsmanship towards his fellow players and match officials.
The final was contested between good friends, Slade Livesey and Anthony Davis. This is the third consecutive Junior Final between the two friends.
In an extremely tight game Slade lived up to his status as the number one Under 11 player in South Africa and defeated Anthony by one goal to nil.
Both Slade and Anthony are only 8 years old and the potential showed by these players are really great. The senior players will concentrate on all the juniors next season with special emphasis on the latter as SATFA believe these two juniors are future world champions.
On Sunday the Under 13’s and Senior Championships were contested with 15 players taking part. Richard Graaff had a clean sweep of victories in this category and was duly crowned Under 13 SA Champion. The Senior category had two groups of 5 players (including juniors Richard Graaff and Brandon Pienaar). In the semi-finals, Harold Silber’s hot winning streak of four victories in a row came to an end against the fast improving Fernando Rodrigues who won in a penalty shoot-out after the game ended goalless. The second semi-final also proved to be a very tight game with Clifford Graaff edging out Jason Kennedy by the odd goal. The final pitted African Open Champion, Clifford Graaff against the most improved player of 2009, Fernando Rodrigues. In an action-packed final Clifford Graaff won his second SA title by defeating Fernando by two goals to nil.
In summary SATFA is extremely pleased with the progress made in 2009. Our registered players, who have taken part in any SATFA organized tournament/league is now in excess of 50. Bigger and exciting plans are envisaged for 2010, which will prove to be a watershed year for our local soccer and our ever increasing table football community.

Top players on TV

2009-12-03T13:09:00.000+01:00

Gil Delogne and Delphine Dieudonné will appear in this monday's TV show "Studio 1" on the national TV chanell RTBF2 (also called "La Deux"). The shows is the most popular football show on belgian french-speaking national TV and it will be broadcast from 8.05 pm till 10.00 pm. This is a realyl exceptional chance to promote table football on TV. Well done!

Hungary in Vienna!

2009-11-30T18:27:00.003+01:00

For the very first time in the history of FISTF, a team from Hungary will play a FISTF tournament. The boys from "Rózsadomb Bázis SE" will attend the FISTF Grand Prix of Austria next week-end in Vienna. The tournament will have a very strong field with top players such as Eric Verhagen, Kasper Bennett, Lucio Canicchio, Stefano Buono and all the best austrian players. Fabio Belloni, Günther Bamberzky, Stefan Sandner and Horst Deimel should be the favorites in the veterans tournament while Alexander Haas and Chesney van Keimpeman should be the men to beat in the U19 section. In the U15 events, Diego Tagliaferri will for sure be the man to beat but many new players will also play their first international tournament.
You can see the full updated list of entries at http://flashcup.royal78.com/participants.html

José Leon & Vicenç Prats win in Gibraltar

2009-11-29T10:00:00.009+01:00

The first Gibraltar Open of the season was played this week-end. There were players from Spain and Belgium among the competitors and José Leon managed to win the Open final after beating Nuno Noronha (2-1). Vicenç Prats also beat Nuno Noronha in the final of the veterans. In the U15 section, David Gonzalez beat Belgium's Florian Giaux (2-1) to win the title. The young Giaux won the U12 section. The team event was full of very close games and the spanish team of Tiburones beat Real Murcia in the final.

Text corrected on November 30.

Grand Prix of Berlin

2009-11-29T10:00:00.006+01:00

A lot of players from many different countries attended the German Grand Prix in Berlin this week-end. The tournament was full of surprises and in the Open section, Wolfgang Leitner finally beat teamate Eric Verhagen (3-1) in the final. Christophe Dheur and Axel Donval were the semi-finalists. Fabio Belloni beat Olivier Père in the veterans final, Bjorn Kegenbein beat Christian Staal Nielsen in the U19 sudden death while Marcel Kwiatkowski beat Belgium's Jérémie Gosset in the U15 section. Jessica Hardenne beat Anna-Lisa Mensel to win the Ladies tournament.
Link: http://home.arcor.de/mtilgner/international/gp09.htm

On sunday, the team of Mattersburg wont he team event as they beat Rochefort Table Soccer in the final. SC Stembert and AS Hennuyer reached the semis.

The last individual winner of the week-end is Lukas Bornemann int he U12 section.

Dunmurry Open 2009

2009-11-29T09:59:00.002+01:00

Nine players attended the Dunmurry Open at Kingsway Church and played each other once in a league format. Kenny Beggs finished top with maximum points, while Mark Farrell just pipped Barry Spence for the runner-up spot. They were both equal on points and goal-difference but Mark scored more goals. The tournament was played in a competitive and sporting manner and was rounded off in festive spirit with everyone receiving seasonal chocolate prizes. Special thanks to the three Southern lads for travelling and to fixture guru, Eoin Adams. Comical moment of the day belonged to Eoin when he got slagged for wearing a Boca Juniors shirt by the Argentinian cleaner, who was a River Plate fan!
Final Table: 1. Kenny Beggs, 24 ; 2. Mark Farrell, 19 (Goal Diff: 19-8) ; 3. Barry Spence, 19 (Goal Diff: 16-5) ; 4. John Moore, 15 ; 5. Stephen Rodgers, 10 ; 6. Eoin Adams, 8 ; 7. Nicky Moore, 6 ; 8. Peter Morrison, 4 ; 9. John Hughes, 0.

Season 8 ends

2009-11-28T21:25:00.003+01:00

The Southern California Subbuteo Club's Season 8 drew to a close on Friday November 20, 2009.

By the last night of play the League Champion, runner up, and Wooden spoon winner was already known. The only undecided issue was who would finish in third place. Kevin Nieman had played all of his games and had a two point lead over fourth place Jason Mitchell. Mitchell had one game left that he had to win to claim third place, he had to play Simon Hutchinson "away". Simon scored a goal in either half and Jason finished in fourth place.

The last game of the season was the League Cup final. Mitchell faced league champion. Wayne Smith, who was trying to win his second consecutive League Cup. Smith scored an early goal, and continued to press Mitchell's defense for the rest of the game. Jason made a number a spectacular saves to deny Wayne a goal. With just 15 seconds left Smith did finally get his second goal. For the second season Wayne had done the "double".

While Mitchell's was frustrated on the pitch, he was rewarded with "Player of Season 8" accolade.

Congratulations to all the winners:

League Champion : Wayne Smith
Wooden spoon winner : Dominic Hutchinson
League Cup winner : Wayne Smith
Player of the season : Jason Mitchell

League table, results, reports, photographs, and videos here»

Already 100 Satellites

2009-11-25T12:20:00.000+01:00

After a difficult time to convince the national associations they could be a good idea, Satellites were introduced by FISTF in 2003. Finally, after six years, it's very positive to see that 100 Satellites have been played. As a reminder, Satellites are tournaments open for the players who are not in the Top 100 of the Open category. For the other categories, only the top 20 players (or teams) in the world rankings are not allowed to play.
So the 100th Satellite took place this week-end in Singapore and Yusni Den Mulia (240th in the Open ranking) is now in the history of FISTF as the winner of this special event. Den Mulia is one of the 3 players who won more than 2 Satellites. Giorgos Tsombanidis (Greece) won 4 titles while Antoine Dikaios (Belgium) and Yusni Den Mulia (Singapore) won 3 times. Satellites have been organised in 17 countries and Belgium organized the largest number of Satellites (14) while Greece hosted 12, Portugal 11, Italy & England 10,... Players from 20 countries won Satellites. Belgium & Greece won 12, Portugal & Italy 10, Malta & England 7,... We can really consider Satellites as important events in the FISTF circuit and hopefully the "smaller" tournaments like Challengers and Futures will also become more important in the future.

Koutis wins in Greece

2009-11-25T05:59:00.003+01:00

There was a national tournament this week-end in Haidari. Giorgos Koutis won the main event, beating clubmate Kostas Triantafillou in the final. The other winners were Vlassopoulos (U12), Koulosousas (U15), Dimakeas (Open B1) and Papadopoulos (Open B2).

Marko Karhunen is the new champion

2009-11-25T05:10:00.002+01:00

Marko Karhunen (TFC Lynx) became the new national champion in Finland after beating Vesa Kouvonkorpi (Hesu) 3-2 in the final of the championship held this week-end. Jarkko Lindholm (Lynx) is 3rd and Teemu Sihvola (Sisu) is 4th. TFC Lynx also won the very first team title in Finland as they came on top of a group of 4. The full results of the tournament can be found at http://www.subu.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=60

Pisa on top in Italy

2009-11-25T04:54:00.004+01:00

The city of Salerno hosted the italian cup last week-end. It was a huge tournament with 250 players involved. The former european champions of CCT Black & Blue Pisa won the team title as they beat Reggio Emilia int he final. Perugia and Napoli lost in the semis. There was also a tournament for the lower teams called "Cadetti" and the winners were the team of Fiamme Azzurre (Rome). In the Open category, Daniele Bertelli (Pisa) won the individual title after he beat clubmate Daniele Pochesci in the final. Nicky Napolitano won the "Cadetti" title. Other winners were Emilio Richichi (veterans), Andrea Manganello (U19), Diego Tagliaferi (U15), Paolo Zambello (U12) and Giuditta Lo Cascio (Ladies).
There is a nice video at http://www.salernotravel.tv/index.php?option=com_hwdvideoshare&task=viewvideo&Itemid=54&video_id=97&lang=it

Ruben Português wins the portuguese cup

2009-11-25T04:49:00.002+01:00

The Portuguese Cup took place last week-end in Porto. Int he Open category, the young Ruben Português won the trophy after beating Norberto Miguel (3-2) int he final. João Rodrigues and André Fernandes were the semi-finalists. In the veterans, João Rodrigues defeated José Santos 2-1 in the sudden death of the final. Paulo Laranjeira and Miguel Faria were the semi-finalists.

SA Championships next week-end

2009-11-24T06:33:00.001+01:00

The third annual SA Table Football Championships will take place at Panorama Sports Club on Saturday (28/11/09) and Sunday (29/11/09). The program will be as follows:

Saturday 28/11/09
Our Under 9 to Under 12 Championships will be flicking off at 10h30. Panorama Sports Club has graciously allowed us to hold our tournament on the same day as their annual Christmas Party. There will be six small sized tables to cater for all the juniors. Entrance is free and each participating junior will receive a free soccer ball. Trophies will be awarded to the respective winners.

Sunday 29/11/09
Our Under 13, Seniors and Ladies Championships will be flicking off at 10h00.
Entrance is free. Lucky draw prizes will be handed out. Trophies will be awarded to the respective winners.

FLICK-OFF (the first South African producer of table football playing fields and goals) will be promoting a limited amount of specially boxed table football teams and complete table football sets on both Saturday and Sunday. The first specially branded ‘FLICK-OFF’ playing fields will be used exclusively on Saturday for our Junior Championships. So get ready for a flicking good week-end of table football fun, action and great goals.

See you at Panorama on Saturday and Sunday. For any questions/queries please drop a mail to Clifford Graaff at cgraaff@skyegroup.co.za or contact him on 0826836750.

Alberto Mateos wins in Estapa

2009-11-24T06:27:00.003+01:00

The national tournament of Estapa (near Sevilla) was organised this week-end and it was one of the largest tournaments ever in Spain. Alberto Mateos (Real Murcia) defeated Angel Valverde on shots to win the Open title. The team of Real Murcia also took the team title after defeating the club of Tiburone (Malaga). José Ros won the U19 section, David G. Bermudez (Tiburones FM) was the best U15 and Juan Carlos Granados was the easy winner in the veterans.

Besides the tournament, Fernando Gomez announced he retires as president of the spanish association.

SC Stembert leads the belgian league

2009-11-23T12:46:00.003+01:00

After 2 of the 4 days in the belgian league for clubs, all teams have now played 8 games. SC Stembert is the leader with 18 points. Stembert lost 2 important games against AS Hennuyer and Charleroi. AS Hennuyer has 17 poits, Verviers Herve & Charleroi 14, JSC Rochefort & Brussels SC 13, Temploux 9, Templeuve 4 and SC Flanders 0.
In Division 2, Rochefort Table Soccer is the leader with 24 points. Rochefort Table Soccer B is 2nd with 21 points. Then come Stembert B, JSC Rochefort B, and Temploux B with 15 points, SC Flanders B, Verviers Herve B, Brussels SC B and Brussels United.

Amberny on top in France

2009-11-23T12:46:00.001+01:00

Jean-Marie Amberny won the first national Grand Prix of the french circuit held this week-end in Puylaurens, near Toulouse. Amberny beat Emmanuel Gorgette (3-0) in the final while Cédric Garnier and Benjamin Garnier reached the semis. To be noted that both Amberny and Gorgette had been playing the belgian league for teams on saturday in Auvelais (near Namur) and they came back to Paris to take a plane to Toulouse to play the tournament on sunday. Great job!

Gerhard Mandl on top

2009-11-23T12:45:00.000+01:00

Gerhard Mandl on top
After 2 days in the austrian league, Gerhard Mandl (TFC Mattersburg) is the leader in division 1. Mandl has 15 points in 7 games. Then come in the ranking Christian Blümel (14-7), Erich Hinkelmann (13-6), Karl-Heinz Haider (12-7), Thorsten Korzil (9-7), Günther Bamberzky (8-7), Wolfgang Leitner (6-3), Alexander Haas (4-7), Manfred Pawlica (1-3) and Christian Haas (-1 in 6 games). In division 2, Stefan Sandner is leading the league with a perfect report of 24 points in 8 games. Thomas Karnthaler is 2nd, Heinz Eder 3rd, Günther Exler 4th, Thomas Exler 5th, Jürgen Lizar 6e, Rene Karner 7th, Patrick Zeilinger 8th, Herbert Wurst 9th and Alexander Lizar 10th.
Leitner, Pawlica and Zeilinger will have till January to play their games of the 2nd day.

Nice promotion work in Vienna

2009-11-23T12:44:00.002+01:00

There was a big festival for all kind of games in Vienna last week-end. The austrian association presented table soccer next to the austrian league of soccer and organized a tournament on sunday too. Tis is the link to see some pics: http://picasaweb.google.at/Sporttischfussball/Spielefest2009#

Den Mulia and Rob Smith win in Singapore

2009-11-23T05:34:00.003+01:00

The Singapore association hosted two tournaments this week-end. Besides the great field of local players, representatives from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia were taking part. In the Satellite, Den Mulia confirmed he's still the best local player as he beat Rob Smith (Australia) in the final. Smith was in a great shape though as he won the other tournament of the week-end, beating Den Mulia in the semi-final and Tan Kok Wee in the final. This is the first international victory for Australia! Well done to both winners.

Scottish circuit - 3rd leg

2009-11-23T05:32:00.002+01:00

14 players attended the third leg of the scottish circuit in Arbroath. Final standings from sunday's tournament are as follows: 1. Dave Baxter (HCE) ; 2. Mike Burns (HCE) ; 3. Brian Clark (EPL) ; 4. Steve Bennett (EPL) ; 5. Colin Matthew (TK91) ; 6. Kevin Christopher (HCE) ; 7. Gareth Christie (TK91) ; 8. Colin Day (GTSC) ; 9. Dave Butler (GTSC) ; 10. Scott Fleming (TK91) ; 11. Craig Lynch (HCE) ; 12. Tom Wakeford (HCE) ; 13. Nathan Clark (TK91) ; 14. Chloe Reid (HCE).

Claudio Miscia wins in Buenos Aires

2009-11-16T13:26:00.003+01:00

12 players competed int he FISTF Open of Buenos Aires this week-end. Claudio Miscia (Rosario) beat Sergio Pelle (Mar del Plata) on shots in the final. Patricio Echevarrieta and Fabrizio Bertolini lost in the semis.

Amberny again!

2009-11-16T13:23:00.003+01:00

The french association had a national tournament in Montivilliers on sunday. Jean-Marie Amberny (JSC Rochefort) beat Axel Donval (Rochefort TS) in the final. Sébastien Dubuc and Stéphane Pommier reached the semis. Baptiste Leroux beat Raphaël Pommier in the final of the U15 tournament. In the quarter-finals, the players were Olivier Bastin, Mongi Rouis, Emmanuel Gorgette and Thomas Ponté.

Ruf wins the german cup

2009-11-16T13:23:00.002+01:00

Ruf and Rain are the winners of the German Cup 2009 Last weekend the German Cup 2010 took place in Rain. In the final of the individuel competition Alexander Ruf from the host club TSG Rain beated team-mate Arnold Mair 1-0 in the extra-time. The 3rd place reach Frank Hagenkötter (TSL Dortmund). In the team competition the club of Rain played the final against TSL Dortmund 2-2, but won by goals. At that weekend the german association DSTFB elected Janus Gersie as chairman. Gersie already lead DSTFB successfully between 1999 and 2006.

Satellite of Athens

2009-11-14T23:36:00.002+01:00

The first winners of the FISTF Satellite in Athens are as follows after day 1 of the tournament.
- Chris Aggelinas (AS Hennuyer) beat Marcos Kapsambelis int he final of the veterans;
- the young Bairas wins the U15 category;
- Nikos Karatarakis wins the U12 section;
- the teams of Pireas Lions beats ITEC Olympia in the team event (2-1).

Is FISTF growing?

2009-11-13T18:29:00.002+01:00

Many people are wondering if the number of FISTF players is growing or not. Some also say there is a big lack of ambition from FISTF because the numbers could be much higher. The "official" number of FISTF players is 1877. Why 1877? Simply because there are 1877 different players ranked in the different world rankings. OK, I know some people are currently saying we should have much more ambition and try to reach at least the number of 10.000 players but this can be done only step by step and only with the help of the national associations.
One of the keys to develop the number of players is to make sure they enjoy playing in tournaments. Many players have not attended tournaments in the last 24 months because they don't like to compete in tournaments where the level is too high. A solution for this is that national associations should have a wider range of tournaments from the "Grand Prix" to the "Futures". Of course this is very difficult to do so when the players base in one country is very small.
The other idea is to make sure that more and more countries organize tournaments. The more tournaments there are, the more there are chances players whill show up to compete. Also, the more tournaments there are, the more players will accept to pay a membership fee to their national association.
There is no perfect system to have world rankings but at least there can be some pride for association to organize a few tournaments per season so that the top players can reach the top of the rankings. It's also very nice to read in newspapers that the world rankings are used. It gives more credit to a player to be mentionned with his ranking in the newspapers.
Well, these are a few ideas but it's sure we should definately put more energy to try to organize more and more tournaments and to try to get as many new players as possible. Reaching the number of 3000 players in 2014 shoudl be the goal to reach and we should work all together to achieve this.
For your statistics file, here is the number of ranked players per country (as per October 2009): Italy 500 ; Belgium 242 ; Greece 170 ; Unites States of America 122 ; England 76 ; France 75 ; Spain 68 ; Germany 63 ; Austria 58 ; Argentina 55 ; Portugal 55 ; the Netherlands 49 ; South Africa 45 ; Malta 40 ; Denmark 39 ; Singapore 30 ; Scotland 27 ; Gibraltar 24 ; Cyprus 21 ; Finland 21 ; Canada 14 ; Czech Republic 14 ; Norway 14 ; Wales 14 ; Northern Ireland 13 ; Japan 8 ; Monaco 5 ; Ireland 4 ; Switzerland 4 ; Albania 2 ; Australia 1 ; Brazil 1 ; Hong Kong 1 ; Jamaïca 1 ; Malaysia 1. Total = 1877.

The Eagles Napoli are the champions

2009-11-09T06:17:00.002+01:00

A superb goal by Massimo Bolognino in the last 20 seconds of the final offered the continental title to the Eagles Napoli. The Italians were surprising winners as they were not part of the 26 teams who registered in due time. They were invited to fill the field of 32 teams and had a strong role of outsider in the tournament. The second place of Mattersburg and the semi-finals of Reggio Emilia and Pisa will also be remembered! The tournament held in Tournai (Belgium) will also be remembered as the first European Cup with 32 teams.

News from Australia

2009-11-05T21:50:00.001+01:00

A few players met last week-end in Sydney. It was the first gathering for many years and there are plans to organize more games soon. News at http://subbuteo-australia.blogspot.com/

Portugal: transfer news

2009-11-05T21:49:00.005+01:00

Miguel Castro and Paulo Português have left the club of "Beira Mar de Almada" and are now joining the "Clube de Futebol de Sassoeiros".

Swiss cup

2009-11-05T21:49:00.003+01:00

The 4th and last stage of the Swiss cup was held last sunday. Willi Hofmann beat Thomas Baumeler (4-0) in the final. Willi Hofmann is also the final winner of the Swiss circuit as he won the 4 stages.

Scottish circuit

2009-11-05T21:49:00.001+01:00

The 2nd event of the Scottish Championship was held in Glasgow on 25 October. The final placings were as follows, full results can also be viewed at http://www.freewebs.com/scottishsportstablefootballassociation/
Rankings: 1, Steve Bennett ; ; 2, Dave Baxter ; 3, Kevin Christopher ; 4, Brian Clark ; 5, Mike Burns ; 6, Scott Fleming ; 7, Dave Gladman ; 8, Terry Brown ; 9, Ronnie McKenzie ; 10, Andrea Andreoni ; 11, Dave Butler ; 12, Colin Day ; 13, Colin Mathew ; 14, Craig Lynch ; 15, Tom Wakefield ; 16, Baver Bari.
Some footage of the event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I-cvfDnEY0

Subbuteo in Peru

2009-11-05T21:48:00.000+01:00

There is now a small group of table football players in the city of Piura in Peru. There are some efforts made to develop the game in this country and hopefully some thins will happen in the near future. Interested people can join Luis Manuel García Guzmán at garciaglm@hotmail.com

Table football in Malawi

2009-10-28T19:24:00.002+01:00

Thanks to the club of SC Flanders, there is some subbuteo activity in the african state of Malawi. A group of Belgians is helping three schools on the island of Likoma to get material for education and sports activities and in a recent conversation with some players of the SC Flanders club, an agreement was found to introduce subbuteo table football over there. Two sets and some spare material have been sent this year and the members of the association (see http://www.projectmalawi.be/ervaringen/200805_Reisverslag_Guido_en_Nicole.htm for details) paid a visit to the kids. All of them are crazy about football so the table football material was more than appreciated. Kids don't have full tables yet but full pitches are going to be built soon. There is a good chance that the associaion "Malawi Belgium" will pay another visit in Africa in 2011 so we'll know more about the possible development of tale football among the local youth. Any person wanting to offer more material should contact Filip Van Hulle at filip@subbuteovlaanderen.be

Sad news in Spain

2009-10-28T19:22:00.003+01:00

FISTF would like to present the condolences to the family of Juan Carlos Granados Cuellar. Juan Carlos lost his father who died at the age of 82.

Zach gets married

2009-10-26T21:00:00.003+01:00

FISTF would like to congratulate Zach and Lisa Walker for their wedding. We wish all the best to the newlyweds. As you can see, there was some subbuteo spirit during the wedding party.

Valéry Dejardin wins at home

2009-10-26T10:15:00.002+01:00

The Rochefort tournament was played this sunday. Valéry Dejardin brought the Open title to the home club of JSC Rochefort. He beat Arnaud Nullens (AS Hennuyer) in the final. Bessim Golger (who had beaten Eric Verhagen in quarter-final) and Karl-Heinz Haider were the semi-finalists. Casey van Os (U19), Jérémie Gosset (U15), Jessica Hardenne (Ladies), Henk Landzaat (veterans) and Florian Giaux (U12) were the other winners.

Surprise in Rochefort

2009-10-24T18:55:00.003+02:00

The first day of the Rochefort Open had a surprisig issue as the final was won by the newly-born club of Rochefort Table Soccer. They beat the Austrians of Mattersburg in a nice game. Rochefort Table Soccer had already beaten Charleroi in the semi while JSC Rochefort was the other semi-finalist.

Muhd Farhan Othman wins in Singapore

2009-10-21T19:51:00.005+02:00

The national association of Singapore hosted a FISTF Future tournament this sunday. The goal of the event was to help younger players to play competitive games and therefore, most of the local top players were not competing. 10 players from the "Team NYP" Subbuteo Club were competing and Othman Muhd Farhan (1304th in the world rankings) was the final winner. He beat Joel Long 2-1 on sudden death int he final. Mohd Sabah Noor Haikal and Woon Pang Tan reached the semi-finals. It's always great to see some new names in action in the FISTF circuit.

On the pictures: the final between Joel & Farhan (referee is Yusni Den Mulia) & the group picture.

Subbuteo in Brazil

2009-10-20T16:36:00.001+02:00

A very good video from Brazil at http://video.globo.com/Videos/Player/Esportes/0,,GIM1122080-7824-VOCE+CONHECE+O+SUBBUTEO+GLOBO+ESPORTE+APRESENTA+UM+NOVO+JEITO+DE+JOGAR+FUTEBOL,00.html

Europa Cup - the final list

2009-10-16T10:19:00.001+02:00

The final list of teams for the Europa Cup to be held on November 7 & 8 in Tournai, Belgium is finally known. The following teams will be competing.

TFC Mattersburg (AUT), TFC Wiener Neustadt (AUT), TSC Royal 78 Kaisermühlen (AUT), SC Stembert (BEL), AS Hennuyer (BEL), SC Charleroi (BEL), JSC Rochefort (BEL), English Premier League (ENG), North East Table Football Alliance (ENG), Sparta Spreeathen 74/82 (GER), TSL Dortmund 61 (GER), Stella Artois Milano (ITA), ASD Reggio Emilia (ITA), CCT Black & Blue Pisa (ITA), Bologna Tigers Subbuteo (ITA), ACS Perugia 1973 (ITA), Cardiff Bluebirds San Siro (WAL), Real Murcia (ESP), Asociacion Turia 1981 FM (ESP), Subbuteo Club Madrid Total Soccer (ESP), SMV Delft (NED), TSC Falcons Athens (GRE), Pireas Lions (GRE), Brussels SC (BEL), TSPA White Star (ENG), Eagles Napoli (ITA), FTC Issy-les-Moulineaux (FRA), FTC Le Raincy (FRA), TSG Rain (GER), Hamrun TFC (MLT), Olympia CS (GRE) and SC Temploux (BEL).

All teams should send their list of players to vincent.cop@rsca.com before November 2.

Axel Donval wins in Bergkamen

2009-10-10T19:19:00.002+02:00

French player Axel Donval won the FISTF Open of Bergkamen this saturday. He beat David Fraikin in the final. Christan Blümel and Michaël Roberty lost in the semis. Other winners were Victoria Büsing (ladies), Chesney Van Keimpema (U19), Jovi Willeijns (U15) and Ron Corsten (veterans).

On sunday, the belgian team of AS Hennuyer won the team event. They beat Rochefort Table Soccer (2-1) in the final. SC Charleroi and TFC Wiener Neustadt reached the semis.

The belgian cup for Valéry Dejardin

2009-10-10T19:18:00.000+02:00

Valéry Dejardin (JSC Rochefort) won the belgian cup this saturday in Bruges after a short victory against Christophe Dheur in the final (3-2). other winners were Titi Giaux (veterans), Jérôme Bertrand (U19), Jérémie Gosset (U15), Florian Giaux (U12) and Elodie Bertholet (Ladies).

Sad news in Belgium

2009-10-09T07:19:00.002+02:00

Olivier Delogne (38) passed away on thursday. The Brussels player, brother of former world champion Gil Delogne, was suffering of cancer for a few months. He was a well-known player in the international table football community. Our thoughts go to his family and friends.

Carl Nielsen Memorial Challenge

2009-10-06T19:05:00.002+02:00

On Saturday 3 October, 2009, the Southern California Subbuteo Club played host to players from two other Subbuteo clubs for the Carl Nielsen Memorial Challenge. Anders Bruhl Hansen,Jesper Staal Nielsen, andKristian Staal Nielsen represented the Lega Liga Subbuteo Club of Odense, Denmark, and ex-SCSC regular Ric Rivas and his wife Seow Yin made the journey from Tucson, Arizona to take part. The Rivases were previously members of the Lions Subbuteo Club, Singapore.

The event was deemed a "challenge" rather then a tournament so that everyone could play the members of the other clubs, rather than the people in their own club.

The Danes were so much better than everyone else winning seven of their eight games, including four "mercy rule" victories. The eighth game was a tie between Hansen and the SCSC’s Wayne Smith. The "mercy rule" stops the game when one of the players reaches a four goal lead over their opponent.

Ric found it hard to keep up with his former club mates after a long lay off from playing. He lost by three goals to Dominic Hutchinson, and by a single goal to Simon Hutchinson. Seow Yin only played one game, in which she was "mercy ruled" by the older Hutchinson.

And why did we name this event after Carl Nielsen? Nielsen was born in a small village to the south of Odense, and died on 3 October 1931 making the day of the Challenge the 78th anniversary of his demise.

All the results and a full report can be found on the Carl Nielsen Memorial Challenge page on the SCSC’s website.

More events in Singapore

2009-10-06T13:25:00.001+02:00

The Singapore association will organize some more FISTF events this year. It might interest many players around Asia & Oceania to travel there. The events will be as follows:
- Future tournament on October 18
- Challenger on November 20
- Satellite on November 21
For more details, feel free to contact Tan Kok Wee at tfasingapore@gmail.com
As a reminder, the top 100 players in the Open world rankings can not play Satellites, the top 200 players in the Open world rankings can not play Challengers and the top 300 players in the Open world rankings can not play Futures.

Open of Mislata

2009-10-05T06:08:00.002+02:00

Here are the main results of the Open of Mislata held this week-end in Spain. The team event was won by the team of Murcia. They beat Turia in the final. Tiburones FM & Madrid Total Soccer reached the semis.

In the Open tournament, Carlos Flores beat Angel Valverde in the final (6-0). José Leon & Alberto Mateos lost in the semis.

Finally, in the veterans, Juan Carlos Granados took the tile. he beat Arturo Martinez in the final. Emilio Murciano & Nuno Noronha were the semi-finalists.

Manuel Clemares beat Julio Candelas in the final of the consolation tournament.

FTC Issy is the french champion

2009-10-04T21:11:00.002+02:00

In may 2009, the french championship for teams was cancelled in the last minute. Because of that, the tournament was postponed to the date of October 4. 6 teams competed this sunday in Boissy for the national title. FTC Issy-les-Moulineaux won the league. CFT Montivilliers is 2nd, SC Elbeuf 3rd, FTC Le Raincy 4th, FTC Boissy-Saint-Léger 5th and ESC Champs-sur-Marne 6th.

FISTF Open of Napoli

2009-10-04T11:59:00.003+02:00

CCT Black & Blue Pisa won the team event of the FISTF Open of Napoli on saturday. They beat Bologna (2-1) in the final while Perugia and Napoli reached the semis.

On sunday, Daniele Bertelli won the Open final. He beat Massimo Bolognino (4-0).

Emilie Richichi beat Massimiliano Schiavone in the final of the veterans.

Giuditta Lo Cascio beat Valentina Bartolini in the ladies final (1-0).

Emanuele Lo Cascio beat Diego Tagliaferri (4-1) in the U15 final while Giannis Vlassopoulos from Greece beat Ernesto Gentile (3-2 sudden death) in the U12 final and Mattia Bellotti won the U19 title.

Second Challenger title for Arnaud Robillard

2009-10-04T09:58:00.002+02:00

Arnaud Robillard (JSC Rochefort) won his second title in a FISTF Challenger ever as he beat teamate Olivier Saffer (3-2) in the final. The tournament was another success for the host club of AS Hennuyer with 38 players and 8 teams competing. Olivier Père won the veterans, Jérémie Gosset the U19 section, Florian Giaux won the U15, Nathan Dizier was the best U12 and Alysson Moine won the ladies tournament. In the team event, tthe top game was already played in the quarter-finals stage with Rochefort Table Soccer beating top seed JSC Rochefort. Rochefort Table Soccer later won the final as they beat Templeuve United (2-0) with individual wins for Christopher Dheur and Justin Leroy.

On the picture: Arnaud Robillard (Open winner) and Olivier Père (veterans winner).

New logo for the Europa Cup

2009-09-30T13:46:00.002+02:00

Here is the new logo of the Europa Cup, which will be used every year for the tournament.

2009-09-27T09:59:00.002+02:00

44 players attended the FISTF Future of Frameries, home of the AS Hennuyer club. The tournament was amazing with a very large number of entries. Many categories were full of surprises. In open category, Alex Torré (SC Verviers) won the event but the real sensation came from the quarter-finals when Jessica Hardenne beat world champion Delphine Dieudonné in a very close ladies game. Maxime Van Muysen (JSC Rochefort) won the U19, Paul Naszalyi (FTC issy) the U15 and Florian Giaux (Rochefort TS) the U12 section. Allyson Moine won the ladies tournament while Olivier Père (AS Hennuyer) defeated french legend Eric Naszalyi (FTC Issy) in the veterans final. Int he afternoon, the team tournament was played as well and Rochefort Table Soccer won their very first title as they were playing their very first tournament. They beat AS Hennuyer B in the final.

Picture: the team of Rochefort Table Soccer.

New player for TFC Mattersburg

2009-09-25T17:27:00.001+02:00

The world number 1 team of TFC Mattersburg has just signed young talent Jerrel Van Keimpema from the Netherlands. The MVV Rijnmond player will be the 2nd dutch player after Eric Verhagen to play for the austrian team.

Giulianini is back

2009-09-21T06:29:00.003+02:00

Former world champion Giancarlo Giulianini won the Satellite of Casale Monferrato (Italy) this week-end. He beat Mauro Salvati in the final. The team of Torino Warriors B won the team event.

Open of Pireus

2009-09-21T06:28:00.000+02:00

The first tournament of the season was played in Piraeus. A total amount with over 80 Greek players was there for this event, the International open that was organized by the club of Piraeus Lions TSC. The main results were as follows:
- In the first official U12 category 12 players took part. The favorite Giannis Vlassopoulos was the winner as he beat in the final Dimitris Dimopoulos. The Karatarakis brothers Nikiforos and Giorgos complete the pontioum.
- In the U15 we had five players (including 2 females). Dimitris Koulosousas and Vaggelis Bairas Fought hard for the trophy with Dimitris finally to be the winner.
- In the veterans (22 players) the number one of the category Giorgos Aggelinas won his brother Chris in the final. Papakonstantinou and Kapsampelis reached the final.
- A great number of 54 players took part in the open category.
Triantafillou lift the cup as he beat in the final Giorgos Koutis.
Hantzaras and Papakonstantinou reached the semis. Aggelinas brothers, Giohalas and Prantsoudies complete the quarter final. A plate competition was held for those that didn't manage to qualify from the group. Kostas Sesses beat Alexanros Panagiotopoulos in this final.
- In the teams event 9 teams competed for the title. Falcons once again were the winner with the surprising team A of Piraeus Lions in the final.
The B team of lions and Roligans reached the semis.

Juan Nogera joins Reggio Emilia

2009-09-16T20:23:00.004+02:00

According to the official website of Real Murcia (http://realmurcia-cf.blogspot.com/), the top U19 player Juan Noguera (semi-finalist at the last world cup) has signed a transfert to join the italian team of ASD Reggio Emilia. This is one of the most important transferts decided this summer on the international scene.

Beggs again

2009-09-15T13:56:00.001+02:00

Kenny Beggs retained the All-Ireland Open title, beating John Moore on shots after a close final which ended 1-1. John dominated the first half but Kenny gradually came into the game and took the lead midway through the 2nd half. This prompted John to attack again and he was rewarded with an equaliser to take the game into extra-time. Kenny had possession for the whole of the extra period but he couldn't break down John's solid defence, so a shoot-out was required. John missed all five shots, while Kenny scored only one to win the Championship by the narrowest of margins. Kenny made it a double by defeating David Clegg 2-0 in the Veteran Final.
There is a new name on the Under-19 Trophy, as Mark McKane knocked out reigning Champion, Peter Morrison, on shots in the semi-final before beating Adam Scullion 2-0 in the Final.
Nicky Moore beat Alistair Morison 1-0 in the Plate Final.

Open of Wiener Neustadt

2009-09-10T13:13:00.003+02:00

The TFC Wiener Neustadt will organize an International Open on the 5th/6th of june 2010. for details, ask Christian Blümel chris23_at@yahoo.com or check the homeclub website at www.fcwrn.at

Europa Cup

2009-09-10T13:13:00.001+02:00

The registrations for the Europa Cup (which will be held in Tournai, Belgium on November 7 & 8) are now Open. National associations should have received the invitation file from Heinz Eder. For any question, feel free to contact him at eder@fistf.info

FISTF World Cup 2010 in Denmark

2009-09-10T13:12:00.001+02:00

There was a lot of discussion about the FISTF World Cup 2010 during the FISTF eeting held last friday. But finally the organizers send us a lot of positive informations about their plans to host the event. The tournament will be held on September 4 & 5 in Odense, Denmark. The venue will be Hunderup-hallen (Hunderup Hall), which is a sports centre situated in a park area in the middle of Odense. A very nice place.

Organizers will most likely use the pitches from Rotterdam 2009, although there is a chance that the town of Odense will sponsor all new tables for the tournament (and for future use in schools and clubs and such). They will know that by the end of this year.

Organizers will probably not make any special arrangements with hotels, so they suggest that visitors who are eager to book their holiday now check in at www.hotels.com and find what suits them. As mentioned above, the venue will be in the center of Odense. Most importantly, Organizers will be able to offer very cheap (probably 15 Euro per night) accomodation in a nearby school, so everyone who can live without the luxury of a hotel is welcome to make this choice.

In general, Organizers can say that in the organisation schedule January 1st 2010 is the date where all important things concerning the tournamant is to be properly anounced on an Official World Cup 2010 website.

Organizers are taken a bit by surprise that participants are already at this moment in need of a detailed description of the event. We ask for a bit of patience - bear in mind that the event is in a year, not a week, from now - but of course anyone should feel free to send their questions and they will answer them the best they can.

For details, feel free to contact Jonas Bentzen at benz@galnet.dk

FISTF meeting: what happened?

2009-09-10T13:11:00.001+02:00

FISTF held a very constructive meeting before the world cup like friday in Rotterdam. Anyone wanting a copy of the meeting minutes can drop me a line.
Here are the main decisions taken during (and after) the meeting.
a) Silvio Catanio (Malta) becomes the new FISTF General Secretary ad interim. E-mail: maltatablefootball@gmail.com
b) Piero Capponi becomes the new FISTF vice-president in charge of marketing & communication. E-mail: pcapponi@ftchamps.com
c) The U12 category becomes official from now on.
d) The new commission about material will study to possibility to change the rules of the goalkeeper. The commission will have to send a proposal to the FISTF Board for approval.
e) An international meeting should be held over 2 days to discuss the future of the sport in a location to be decided soon.
f) The rules about sportswear during tournament will be enforced.
g) In FISTF tournaments U12 players can never be referees.
h) Consolation tournaments should always be held in FISTF events (excepted Majors).

Number 3 for Martijn Bom

2009-09-07T13:33:00.000+02:00

Despite some disappointing results in the FISTF Tour, Martijn Bom proved to be on top at the right moment of the year as the Dutchman managed to win his third individual event. This time, he beat Erich Hinkelmann in the final. Once again, Italy managed to do better on saunday. The Italians dominated the team events and took the tile after a close final against Italy. Well done.

Italy gave no chance

2009-09-07T13:29:00.002+02:00

The U15 finalists

The U12 finalists

The U12 and U15 sections were an italian affair as the Squadra Azzurra won the 4 possible tournaments. In the individual event, Diego Tagliaferri and Emmanuele Lo Cascio won the U12 and U15 events. On the next day, Italy also won the team finals on a clear 4-0 aganst France in the U15 section and on a easy 3-0 against Belgium in the U12 tournament.

The Queen is still there

2009-09-07T13:26:00.001+02:00

Belgium took the honors in the ladies category. On saturday, Delphine Dieudonné proved to everyone she's still the best player int he world as she beat Françoise Guyot on a clear 7-2 in the final. Dieudonné was also the leader of the belgian national team on sunday. Along with Bertholet, Doumont, Hardenne and Beckers, the "Girls in black" beat Italy on a short 2-1 in the final.