The news of the week (6)

Hello, here are some updates about what's going on in the WASPA circuit and int he international subbuteo scene.

Stockholm tournament update - There are now 9 confirmed players (from 7 different nationalities) for the Stockholm tournament and 21 "possible entries", which includes Denmark's Rasmus Lund. The event will definately be one of the most exciting ones this season.

Another tournament in Australia? - Brett Davies (wolfden@bigpond.net.au) is trying to organize something in October at the MOAB, one of the largest Wargaming events in the country. Interested players can drop a line to Brett so that he can arrange the location and the exact date.

Subbuteo back in the stores - One of the breaking news at the FISTF world cup in Italy was the announcement made by the spanish company Netcam, owner of Total Soccer, confirming "they have purchased Hasbro's subbuteo trademark rights for the next 10 years with an option for the next 10 years. They also purchased the right to manage everything concerning the material and they will produce do two samples for all, mold bases and the original Astropitch. The relaunch os Subbuteo will start next June at the European Football Championships in all countries of Western Europe and even in some of Eastern European nations." The bad news about this change is that Netcam intends to regulate the use of the name Subbuteo, which means everyone wanting to use the world subbuteo (in a subbuteo club, association, an Internet forum,...) will have to ask Netcam's permission. And that's not great....

Small nations at the FISTF World Cup - The FISTF world cup took place lastw eek-end in Palermon, Sicily (South of Italy). It was one of the smallest world cup ever with only 121 players (including 18 U12 players) from only 12 nations. 5 countries managed to have a strong team (Italy), Belgium, Malta, Austria and Spain) while Wales had 5 players, Germany and England had 4 players. The last 4 nations had only one player. Andrea Gasparini was the US representative and didn't panage to pass the first round int he Open category. Margot Diradourian, a young U12 girl, was one of the surprises of the U12 section. Some people comparred her to the Delphine Dieudonné, the legend of the ladies section, of 20 years ago (!) while Wendy Wang Yang, a chinese girl who is Austria's Worlfgang Haas's wife, was plying in the ladies section (with a swiss jersey as she's living in Switzerland). But the big surprise of the week-end was the peformance of Swiitzerland's Trisha Baumeler. The young girl of the Zurich club reached the final of the Ladies tournament. She lost to Giuditta Lo Cascio but she can be very proud of her performance. Well done.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future.
- August 21 - Tournament hosted by Leste' Aquila SC (Singapore)
- August 21 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)
- August 27 - Tournament in England (details coming soon).
- September - Tournament in Malta (details coming soon).
We wait for the exact dates of the tournaments in Australia (planned for October 2011 & January 2012) and we have had interest from South Africa, Denmark, Germany, England and the US. Who will come next?

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Italy (53), Australia, the United Kingdom, Greece, the USA, Germany, Finland and Greece, Belgium, and South Africa

Keep on flicking,
Vincent