Table football

This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Table football is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:

Related Sponsors

BM Pharmacy Generic pharmaceuticals at unbeatable prices. Insomnia, men's health, hair health, pain control. bmpharmacy.com
Online Pharmacy Carisoprodol, tadalafil, sildenafil, vardenafil and more... xlpharmacy.com
MedBasket.com Discreet. Inexpensive. Fast shipping. Great selection. What more can we say? medbasket.com
Frugalmed 2000 reasons to shop with us first. frugalmed.com
Ads by Tiva

This is about the game using players on rods. Table football/soccer is also a generic term of the game known colloquially as Subbuteo.
Table football (Bonzini style table).
Table football (Bonzini style table).

Table football, also known as foosball, table soccer or baby foot, is a table-top game that is based on association football (soccer). Table football is normally called foosball in the United States and Canada.

Contents

Names

The most common Enlgish names are table football, bar football and foosball, though table soccer is also used. Among French-style players it is known as babyfoot [1]. Foosball can also be spelt "foozball", "foozeball", "fooseball" and (though rarely) "fuseball".


Here is a list of its name in several countries:

  • Germany
    Table football is commonly known as Tischfußball or Kicker in German.[1]
  • Italy
    In Italy it is known as calcio balilla, bigliardino or biliardino (from "biglia", little ball) or even calcetto (less frequent, since "calcetto" is commonly used to indicate Five-a-side football), and in particular areas futbolino.
  • Canada
    In Canada, it is often referred to as "jitz" which initiated from the italian word "gitoni" which means foosball or table soccer. People called it gitz for short and spelled it "jitz" for elegance.
  • Spanish-speaking countries
    In México it is acknowledged as futbolito, in Argentina it is known as metegol, in Chile it is recognized as taca-taca, in and Peru is called "fulbito", in Spain, Colombia and Costa Rica it is known as futbolín, in Guatemala it is called futío, in some other Spanish-speaking countries being futbol de mesa or futbolito, although the latter might also refer to football played on a smaller field.
  • Hungary
    Csocsó.
  • Croatia
    Stolni nogomet.
  • Portugal
    Matraquilhos.
  • Brazil
    Pebolim or totó
  • Turkey
    Langırt.
  • Denmark
    In Danish it is called "bordfodbold" (table soccer).
  • Bulgaria
    In Bulgaria, besides "Futbol na masa" (Table Football) it is also known as "djagi".

History

Patents may exist from as far back as the 1890s (see the external links section for more detail). The game of Table Football as we know it today, however, was first invented and patented in 1923 (U.K. patent no. 205,991 application: dated 14th October 1922 and accepted: 1st November 1923) by an Englishman by the name of Harold S. Thornton of North London (????-1951).

That patent is in every respect the same as the accepted table football that is played throughout the world today with the same formation of rod-controlled men.

The concept was conceived after Harold had been to a Spurs football match (he was an avid supporter). He wanted to provide a game that replicated football that could be played at home. The inspiration came from a box of matches; by laying the matches across the box he had formed the basis of his game.

His uncle (United States resident Louis P. Thornton, who lived in Portland Oregon) visited Harold and took the inspiration back to the States where it was patented in 1927 (United States Patent Office No. 1,615,491). The patent eventually expired.

Alejandro Finisterre thought of making a form of soccer that would be fun for children who could not play traditional soccer. He commissioned Francisco Javier Altuna to create this form of recreational game, which as a result was supported by patenting during 1937.

In 2002, the International Table Soccer Federation (ITSF) was established in France with the mission of promoting the sport of Table Soccer as an organizing sports body, regulating international competitions, and establishing the game with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as an officially recognized Olympic sport, although the game has not yet been recognized as an olympic sport.

The game

A goalkeeper
A goalkeeper

To begin the game, the ball is served through a hole at the side of the table, or simply placed by hand at the feet of a figure in the center of the table. The initial serving side is decided with by coin toss. Players attempt to use figures mounted on rotating bars to kick the ball into the opposing goal. Expert players have been known to move balls at speeds up to 56 kmh (35 mph) in competition.citation needed

Ball control
Ball control

Rules consider "360-degree shots" or "spinning" (using the palm of the hand to swiftly spin the bar all around, instead of using wrist strokes to kick the ball with a bar-mounted figure) to be illegal. However, shots short of a full 360-degree rotation are legal.

The winner is determined when one team scores a predetermined number of goals, typically five, ten or eleven in competition. When playing Bonzini competitions the target numbers of goal is seven.

Foosball tables can vary in size, but a typical table is about 120 cm (4 ft) long and 61 cm (2 ft) wide. The table usually contains 8 rows of foos men, which are plastic, metal, wooden, or sometimes carbon-fibre figures mounted on horizontal metal bars. Each team of 1, 2, or 3 human players controls 4 rows of foos men.

The arrangement is standard. Looking from left to right on one side of the table, the configuration is as follows:

Row 1 Goalkeeper 1 foosman (sometimes 2 or 3)
Row 2 Defense 2 foosmen (sometimes 3)
Row 3 Opponent's attack 3 foosmen (sometimes 2)
Row 4 Midfield 5 foosmen (sometimes 4 or 6)
Row 5 Opponent's midfield 5 foosmen (sometimes 4 or 6)
Row 6 Attack 3 foosmen (sometimes 2)
Row 7 Opponent's defense 2 foosmen (sometimes 3)
Row 8 Opponent's goalkeeper 1 foosman (sometimes 2 or 3)

Foosball can also be played with four people in "doubles" style, in which there are teams of two people on either side. In this scenario, one player can control the two defensive rows and the other team member uses the midfield and attack rows. In informal matches, three or four players per side are also common.

Competition

Table football on Tornado in New York
Table football on Tornado in New York

Table football is often played for fun in pubs, bars, workplaces, schools, and clubs with few rules. Foosball is also played in official competitions organized by a number of national organizations, with highly evolved rules and regulations. Organized competition can be traced back to the 1940s and 1950s in Europe. But the professional tours and bigtime money events began when the founding father of modern professional table soccer, Lee Peppard of Seattle, Washington, United States announced a "quarter million dollar tour" in 1975. Peppard went on to award several million dollars in prize monies, and, ever since his Tournament Soccer Organization went out of business in 1981, several organizations and promoters have continued holding large purse professional table soccer events worldwide. The ITSF regulates International events including the yearly World Championships and the World Cup held to coincide with the FIFA World Cup every four years. In 2006, Austria, Germany and Belgium took the Gold, Silver and Bronze respectively.

Tables

A Garlando style table with a game in progress
A Garlando style table with a game in progress
An 11-per-side Leonhart table football game in Berlin
An 11-per-side Leonhart table football game in Berlin

A vast number of different tables exist. The table brands used on the world tour and official ITSF tournaments are "French-style" Bonzini, "American-style" Tornado, "Italian-style" Roberto Sport and Garlando, "German-style" Tecball. Other major brands include Kicker, Rosengart, Jupiter Goldstar, Eurosoccer, Löwen-Soccer, Warrior, Lehmacher, Leonhart, and Smoby. There was also a 7-meter table created by artist Maurizio Cattelan for a piece called Stadium. It takes 11 players to a side. Another unique foosball set is the Opus Table created by the Elevenforty company. Each table is hand-crafted, and each foosman is made to resemble his on-field counterpart.

Differences in the table types have great influence on the playing styles. Most tables have one goalie whose movements are restricted to the goal area. On some of these tables the goalie becomes unable to get the ball once it is stuck out of reach in the corner; others have sloped corners to return the ball. Other tables have three goalies, one in the center and one in each corner to reach the ball so sloped corners are not needed. Another major difference is found in the balls, which can be made of cork, plastic, wood or even marble and metal, varying the speed of shots a great deal, as well as the "grip" between the man and the ball.

Robots

Robots designed to play table soccer by roboticists at the University of Freiburg are claimed to be able to beat 85 percent of casual players. They use a camera from below a transparent table base to track the ball, and an electronic control system to control high torque motors to rotate and move the foosmen. Currently an expert player can beat the robot 10 games to 1. [1]. Another table football robot, Foosbot, is claimed to have never been beaten by a human, but has not been tested against expert players. Yet another table football robot is under development by two students at the Technical University of Denmark. The robot uses a camera mounted above an ordinary table [2].

In popular culture

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2008)
  • Foosball tables have figured prominently in a number of movies such as Foos: Be the Greatest (2006, USA) and Longshot (1981, USA).
  • In an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Dr. Forrester and Frank told how they took a foosball table, caulked it, filled it with water, and turned it into a water polo game.
  • In the TV show House, Dr. House and Dr. Wilson are often seen playing the game in the doctor's lounge.
  • In the TV series Zoey 101, characters are often seen playing the game in the PCA lounge.
  • The German movie Absolute Giganten features an interestingly filmed game.
  • The characters Joey Tribbiani and Chandler Bing from the Friends TV show (1994-2004, USA) often play table football. The sitcom featured a Dynamo table in earlier seasons, and later a Tornado (Valley) brand table, each of which were central to many episodes.
  • Table football figures prominently as a Scottish bar sport in the short story "Kingdom of Fife" by Irvine Welsh.
  • In the award-winning Italian movie Il Postino, which is set in the 1950s, the eponymous character of Mario Ruoppolo fell in love at first sight with Beatrice Russo while playing foosball.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b BFA - Table Football

External links

International and national federations

Wikipedia content modification information:

  • This page was last modified on 7 October 2008, at 21:34.

Wikipedia Authorship and Review

Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.

Wikipedia Usage Guidelines

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Table football".

The URL for this specific entry is:

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.