Table football



Table football, also called foosball  (compare with the German Fußball "football") and sometimes table soccer, is a table-top game that is loosely based on football. The goal of the game is to move the control knobs to hit the opponent’s gate, which is always on the right side. There are no unified rules for playing the kicker (foosball), in the sense that they are different in different countries and even in cities, and sometimes in different clubs in the same city.

History
Patents for similar table games date back as early as the 1890s in Europe. However, foosball's origins go back to 1921, when Harold Searles Thorton from the United Kingdom patented the game (UK patent no 205,991 application dated 14 October 1921 and accepted 1 November 1923).

He invented the game due to the popularity of football in Europe, which was spreading so rapidly Harold decided to make a game that people could play in their homes. Since Europeans called the real sport football, Harold decided to call his new creation "Foosball". The game's design inspiration came from a box of matches.

Alejandro Finisterre patented his invention of table football, futbolín, in Barcelona in 1937.

The game was eventually brought to the United States in the 1950s by Lawrence Patterson, reaching its peak of popularity there in the 1970s, when it could be found throughout bars and pool halls everywhere throughout the country.

In 2002, the International Table Soccer Federation (ITSF) was established in France with the mission of promoting the sport. The IRSF acts as organizing sports body, regulating international competitions and establishing the game with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and General Association of International Sport Federation (GAISF).

The sport
The game involves using figures mounted on rotating bars to kick a ball into the opposing goal. Table football 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 eight rows of foos men, which are plastic, metal, wooden, or sometimes carbon-fibre figures mounted on horizontal metal bars. Each team of one or two human players controls four rows of foos men, one row each for the goalkeeper, defenders, midfield and strikers. Players manipulate the rods to control the figures, using them to hold up, pass or 'kick' the ball. Games begin when 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 centre of the table. A coin toss is usually used to determine which player or team serves first. Expert players have been known to move balls at speeds up to 56 km/h (35 mph) in competition.

Most rules consider "over 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) illegal. However, there are many rules variations – in some, the keeper is allowed to spin, in others as long as a goal is scored from a controlled position, rotations of the rod after striking the ball are permitted. Generally, shots short of a full 360-degree rotation before (or after) striking the ball are legal. Since the establishment of the ITSF, the rules have become standardised in most international competitions. However, since January 2012, the annual World Championships and the World Cup have permitted two full 360-degree rotations.

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 number of goals is seven and players must win by at least two clear goals.

The following arrangement is common to ITSF competition tables, though there are substantial variations, particularly in Spain and South America – where the Futbolín table model (or variants) is common and uses a different configuration. Looking from left to right on one side of the table, the configuration is usually as follows:



Table football can be played by two individuals (singles) – and also with four people (doubles), in which there are teams of two people on either side. In this scenario, one player usually controls 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.

Spinning the ball while putting it in the play for the advantage of the placement team is allowed. A goal scored only by placing the ball in the hole with spin is legal.

Competition
Table football is often played for fun in pubs, bars, workplaces, schools, and clubs with few rules. Table football is also played in official competitions organized by a number of national organizations, with highly evolved rules and regulations. Although organized competition can be traced back to the 1940s and 1950s in Europe, the professional tours and big money events began when the founding father of modern professional table soccer, Lee Peppard of Seattle, Washington, announced a "Quarter Million Dollar Tour" in 1976. Several organizations and promoters have continued holding large purse professional table soccer events worldwide. In 1976 Bobby Brown of Green Felt Billiards ended the season with 1305 points, the most ever recorded in a season.

The ITSF now regulates International events including the annual World Championships and the World Cup. The World Cup was originally intended to coincide with the FIFA World Cup, but since January 2009 it has run annually. In the ITSF World Cup and World Championships 2013, almost 500 players from 30 countries congregated in Nantes, France to compete. Team US produced a tremendous performance and won the World Cup.



The ITSF World Tour has also recently expanded to include Asian countries. China, Taiwan and Malaysia played host to ITSF sanctioned tournaments in 2013. In 2016, the Philippines hosted The Manila Bay Open.

Tables
A vast number of different table types exist. The table brands used at the ITSF World Championships are Bonzini, Roberto Sport, Garlando, Tornado, and Leonhart.

Several companies have created "luxury versions" of table football tables. There was a 7-metre table created by artist Maurizio Cattelan for a piece called Stadium. It takes 11 players to a side. 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 to play. Another major difference between table types is found in the balls, which can be made of wood (cork in the case of traditional French tables), various forms of plastic or rarely even marble and metal, varying the speed of shots a great deal, as well as the "grip" between the man and the ball and the ball and the playing surface.

Robotic players
The table football robot Foosbot is claimed to have been beaten by a human several times, but has 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. Another bot has been developed by two students at the EPFL in Switzerland.

In popular culture
The characters Monica Geller, Joey Tribbiani and Chandler Bing from the Friends TV show (1994–2004, US) often play table football. Foosball was a prominent part of the episode "Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism" on Community, a popular TV series.

Foosball has also been the subject of movies such as Longshot (1981), and Underdogs (2013).