The news of the week (28)

2011 back in the mirror - 2011 has been a good year for WASPA, not only because it was the first year of the new association. We had 15 tournaments organized by 9 different clubs from 8 different countries and 135 players from 14 countries (from the 5 continents) took part in the tournaments. There were small events with 4 players but also larger tournaments with up to 30 players. The beginning has been very positive. It will be important to continue to work and to increase the number of tournaments in 2012. Hopefully more nations, clubs and players will join in the next few months.

End of the year and number 1 players - As the year 2011 is going to end in a few hours, we can already announce the names of the different "number 1".
WASPA number 1 player: Darren Bezzina (Malta)
WASPA number 1 nation: Malta
Number 1 player in Asia: Rudy Hesty Roselan (Singapore)
Number 1 player in Africa: Clifford Graaff (South Africa)
Number 1 player in North America: Andrea Gasparini & Wayne Smith (USA)
Number 1 player in Oceania: Bob green (Australia)
Number 1 player in Europe: Darren Bezzina (Malta)

News from Attard SC - the club of Attard recently organized their Christmas cup. Daniele Spadaro Spadaro won the final on shots against Hector Scerri.W ell done to both players.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You can see the contact person for every tournament in the section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- March 4 - Tournament in Singapore
- Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden) -> Details coming soon

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors came from Spain, Germany, Singapore, Italy, Portugal, the UK, Malta, Sweden, Belgium and Finland.

Have a great week-end and keep on flicking,
Vincent

The news of the week (27)

Merry Christmas - Just a quick note to wish everyone a great christmas period. Family and friends should have a special attention at this time of the year and we hope all WASPA players and friends will have a great Christmas.

Updated results file and rankings - The "Golden book" is updated int he download section. Results from Attard and Singapore are included as well as the new rankings. 143 players are now involved. Darren Bezzina is still the number 1 in the individual table.

Another tournament in Singapore - Rudy Hesty has just confirmed there will be another WASPA tournament in Singapore on March 4, 2012. There are hopes that by announcing the event early in advance, there will be some players from abroad. Details are available from Rudy at norrud@singnet.com.sg

Templeuve tournament - It's Christmas period and it's a calm period for subbuteo players. The templeuve United club (Belgium) had a national tournament last saturday counting for the belgian circuit. 29 players took part, which is a poor turnout comparred to previous similar events. There were some good players taking part though and David Leroy (Rochefort TS) took the title after beating Alain Jadot (SC Charleroi) in the final. other winners were Stelio Tsangouris (Open B), Joffray Laurent (Open C), Jody Henrioul (U19), Kenny De Schuyteneer (U15), Corentin Bouchez (U12) and Olivier Dubois (veterans).

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You can see the contact person for every tournament in the section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- March 4 - Tournament in Singapore
- Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden) -> Details coming soon

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors came from Spain, Germany, Malta, Singapore, the UK, France, Sweden, Belgium, Canada and Italy.

Have a great week-end and keep on flicking,
Vincent

Rudy Norita wins the Eastern Elias tournament

Rudy Norita won the Eastern Elias tournament on sunday. Rudy had to wait the end of the shootout to beat John Ho. Joel Long and Tan Kok Wee lost int he semis while the young Faruq won the junior event. Well done to all the competitors.

The news of the week (26)

Some more pictures of the Attard tournament - On the attached pictures, you can see the young Nicolai Cini with his father Michael along with the Minister of Health Dr. Joseph R.Cassar during the presentation of the trophies. Congratulations also to the young players of the San Andrea School who took part to their first tournament.

A world number 1 - The Attard tournament was very special because the winner of the event, Joseph Mifsud, is the current world number 1 int he FISTF ranking of the veterans. Congratulations to Joseph for his victory and a huge THANK YOU for taking part in a WASPA tournament.

Go ahead Singapore - The Eastern Elias club will host a tournament in Singapore next sunday. It's a last minute addition to our calendar but it's more than welcome. Well done to the Singapore guys for this great idea.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You can see the contact person for every tournament in the section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- December 18 - Tournament in Singapore
- December - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa) -> Details coming soon
- December - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden) in 2012 -> Details coming soon

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors came from Spain, Malta, Greece, Germany, Belgium, the US, Singapore, Sweden, Russia, the UK.

Have a great week-end and keep on flicking,
Vincent

Some pictures of the Attard tournament

Here are some pictures of the Attard tournament played last friday.

Joseph Mifsud, winner

Angelo Borg, finalist

Gordon Caruana, consolation winner

Joseph M. Debono, semi-finalist

Another tournament in Singapore

Here is a last minute for a tournament to be played in Singapore on December 18. The Eastern Elias SC will be hosting a second tournament next sunday. Good luck to all players involved.

Joseph Mifsud wins the Attard tournament

Congratulations to Joseph Mifsud (picture) for winning the 5th WASPA tournament in Malta. He beat Angelo Borg in the final. It's a huge honor to have such a great player as Joseph Mifsud taking part and winning a WASPA tournament. 16 players were taking part! Well done to those who made this possible!

The news of the week (25)

Souvenir of the Barcelona tournament - The Barcelona tournament will remain as the largest WASPA tournament till now with 30 competitors. Here is a picture of the finalists, Flavio Watzka (runner-up) and Luis Benito (winner).

Attard tournament - The Attard tournament will take place on friday evening. It will already be the 5th tournament being played in Malta.Good luck to all competitors.

WASPA players in FISTF events - Several WASPA players took part in different FISTF tournamrents over the last few days. In the Grand Grix of Germany in Berlin, Marcus Tilgner (who won the first Stockholm tournament) was the organizer. Despite he didn't do well in the team event, he had the satisfaction to host a nice tournament with 68 players from 12 different countries! Saverio Bari from italy won the Open final.

In the Open of Msida (Malta), Angelo Borg (winner of the 3rd Attard tournament) won the U19 category. The finalist was Darren Bezzina (number 1 in the WASPA ranking). The club of Attard took the 4th place in the team event. Samuel Bartolo beat Massimo Cremona in the Open final.

In the Singapore Satellite, Hong Kong's Antonio Carabillo (finalist of the Yokohama tournament) lost in the semi-final. John Ho beat Mohd Ezan in the final.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You can see the contact person for every tournament in the section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- December 9 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- December - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa) -> Details coming soon
- December - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden) in 2012 -> Details coming soon

Go 20000 - This week the blog passed the interesting number of 10.000 vists. Thanks to all visitors for contributiing to this success story!

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors came from Spain, Germany, the US, Italy, Malta, Russia, Greece, Singapore, Australia and Finland.

Have a great week-end and keep on flicking,
Vincent

The news of the week (24)

Hello, here is another newsletter

30 players in Barcelona - The very first tournament in Spain was more than successful as 30 players were taking part last sunday. They were dropped into six groups of five players and the winner of each group qualified for the play-offs round. In the final, Luis Benito won the title on shots against Flavio Watzka. Competitors were coming from three different clubs (Palomar FT, Lleons de Girona SC & Subbuteo La Selva) while 19 players were not member of any club. This was therefore a great day for the table football community and for WASPA in particular.

Promotion of the Barcelona tournament - You can see a great video promoting the Barcelona tournament BY CLICK HERE

Big moves in the new rankings - After the Barcelona tournament, there are now 118 players in the ranking. Darren Bezzina is still leading the table with 70,50 points while Daniele Spadaro is second and Nicholas Sciberras is third. Luis Benito is the most improved player this month as the newcomer from Spain is already 4th is the ranking. Spain is also coming second in the ranking of nations while Malta remains the leader.

14 entries already for the Attard tournament - There are already 14 players registered for the Attard tournament to be played on December 9. Players can still register till December 5 by contacting Joseph Debono at jmdebono@onvol.net

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You can see the contact person for every tournament in the section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- December 9 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- December - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa) -> Details coming soon
- December - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden) in 2012 -> Details coming soon

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Spain, Malta, Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, Finland, Greece, Cyprus, the US.

Have a great week-end and keep on flicking,
Vincent

Updated results and rankings file

The results of the Barcelona tournament and the new rankings are published in the updated version of the "Golden Book". Check the download section to see the recent updates and enjoy!

A great turnout for the Barcelona tournament

The club of Palomar Ateneu de Sant Andreu Futbol Taula organized their very first WASPA tournament on sunday. It was a great chance for many beginners to discover the atmosphere of tournaments. 30 players were competing in six groups of 5 players. After the first round,t he winers of each group qualified for the playe-offs. In that stage, Flavio Watzka and Luis Benito managed to qualify for the grand final. Luis Benito won on shots after a scorelesss game. Joan Galtés is 3rd, Daniel Muñoz 4th, Marcos Membrive 5th and Guillem Alsina 6th.

The news of the week (23)

Hello, here is another short newsletter

Tournament in Spain - The very first WASPA tournament will take place in Barcelona on sunday. Organizer Flavio Watzka said about 30 players will be competing in the different categories. 12 of them will have the privilege to play for the WASPA title. Good luck to everyone.

Fan of Lille? - Some football fans are also subbuteo fans. Don't miss the link of Florent, a guy from Lille who is also a big fan of the Lille football team. Check this great link at http://florent-subbuteomania.blogspot.com/

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You can see the contact person for every tournament in the section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- November 27 - Tournament in Barcelona (Spain)
- December 9 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- December - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa) -> Details coming soon
- December - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus) -> Details coming soon

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Germany, Finland, the US, Russia, Ital, Greece, France, Spain, Sweden and Belgium.

Have a great week-end and keep on flicking,
Vincent

Happy birthday Mr Debono

Today is a special day for our little community as Joseph M. Debono is celebrating his birthday. Joseph is the oldest player in activity in the WASPA circuit but also a great organizer at Attard Subbuteo Club! Happy birthday Joe!

The news of the week (22)

Hello, here is another short newsletter

Results of the survey - The huge majority of people who answered the survey think WASPA and FISTF should not merge. Only 16% of votes say both associations should merge. Thanks for your comments!

Subbuteo Art Print - If you like table football and art, this is for you. Thanks to Gareth Christie, you can now have beautiful subbuteo pictures on your wall. Check the links at http://presentspotter.com/presents/subbuteo-art-print & http://www.table-football-wall-art.com/

Attard league - The maltese club of Attard is not only the most active club in the WASPA circuit, they also have a strong league. The current table of the league puts GordonC aruana on top win 18 points in 7 games. The next players are Marco Mifsud (15-6), Timothy Spiteri (13-6), Joseph M. Debono (11-6), Robert Azzopardi (10-5), Simon Gauci (9-3), Clint Abela Wadge (5-5), Brendon Borg (4-8), Sharlon Barbara (4-12), Daniele Spadaro (3-1), Hector Scerri (3-3), Lon Joseph Cachia (3-3 and Mario Spiteri (2-7).

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You can see the contact person for every tournament in the section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- November 27 - Tournament in Barcelona (Spain)
- December 9 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- December - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa) -> Details coming soon
- December - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus) -> Details coming soon

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Germany, the UK, the US, Finland, Greece, Italy, Russia, Spain, Belgium and Malta.

Have a great week-end and keep on flicking,
Vincent

Poster of the Barcelona tournament

The poster of the Barcelona tournament has been revealed. Well do to the organizers for preparing a great event!

The news of the week (21)

Hello, here is another short newsletter

Is there an issue for FISTF? - Last week, I was ratjer enthusiast about the future of FISTF because the end of Piero Capponi's presidency and the hope to have elections in February was very positive for the future of the sport. Of course, many things need to be built again from scratch but there was a strong hope that good people could build a strong future by working hand in hand. Unfortunately, things change very fast and not always in the right direction. Laurent Garnier, the General Secretary of FISTF, was named President of FISTF and, by surprise, he was "confirmed" as being president till the next Congress... in 2015. The simple fact that there might be no elections in February proves the people int he FISTF Board only think about their own interests and not about the good of the game and the needs of the community. Having a Board working against the basic principles of democracy and against the expectations of the players and the national associations will prevent out community to work serenely.

In such a situation, WASPA might take more and more importance because I expect many disappointed players to look for "something else" and hopefully WASPA could give a positive answer to the questions of the players who are unhappy with FISTF. As several national associations have already written to Laurent Garnier to say they are unhappy about the latest changes, we hope that the FISTF Board will answer to the expectations of the players and that good sense will prevail. Until possible elections, a lot of things might happen. Wait & see...

The priorities of WASPA - Right now, there isn't much going on in the WASPA calendar. There is only one tournament to be played this month but there are good plans to have more tournaments in the next few months. Hopefully more events will take place in December and in 2012. Having more tournaments and more nations involved is definately the top priority of WASPA for the next few months.

Competion: create the new WASPA banner - I recently had several messages from players telling me the WASPA blog is fine but they don't like the picture on top of the blog. So there is an open competition to give the possibility to everyone to send proposal for a new banner. All ideas are welcome. The banner can just be a picture but the WASPA logo can also be included. All proposals should be sent by e-mail to Vincent.cop@rsca.com
Thanks in advance!

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You can see the contact person for every tournament in the section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- November 27 - Tournament in Barcelona (Spain)
- December 9 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- December - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa) -> Details coming soon
- December - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus) -> Details coming soon

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Germany, the US, the UK, Spain, Finland, Greece, Belgium, Russia, Malta and Australia.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

The news of the week (20)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week.

What future for FISTF? - Important facts happened in the last few days in FISTF. After the European cups played in Slovenia, president Piero Capponi decided to resign and he was followed in his decision by Sports Director Stefano De Francesco. Both men had an important role in the FISTF Board and their decision will probably involve a lot of important changes in the future. Piero Capponi said elections should be held in February at the Major of Mons but this has to be confirmed. Whatever happens, it will be difficult for FISTF to get back on the right track after all the mess of the last two years. Since a few people decided to take over things after the world cup in the Netherlands in 2009, a lot of promises have been made to change the main international body. The new Boards, firstly led by Malta's Silvio Catania and later by Spain's Piero Capponi, wanted to make a more professional game, to introduce professional rules and to get more media coverage and sponsors. Even if some ideas were good, they were probably not realistic and the community is not ready to change his attitude. It's not only about the game itself but new rules about the size of the figures have not been appreciated by many players and there were some incidents last week-end in Slovenia when players were told they were not allowed to play because the figures were smaller than 27 mm.

So what will be the direction of the new Board? Will people continue to dream about a professional game or will we get back to a more "human scale" where the game remains the priority? Should we insist on having large venue with perfect tables or should we just insist on having tournaments with many games for every player and a better organisation of games? There were no scoreboards at the Europa Cup and nowhere to have a drink or something to eat in the hall and this is certainly not what players expect from a major tournament, in particular when they travel thousands of kilometers to play.

It will take some time before elections are held and before new people take over things again from scratch. The fact the next world cup will be held in July in Greece involves it will certainly be one of the worst events in terms of attendance. The new Board has there to take the right options to make the world cup something special and a priority for all players who are qualified to play.

The future of WASPA will of course depend on the future options of FISTF. Some voices say both FISTF and WASPA should merge and an amateur circuit should be organized under FISTF banner. This will only be possible if the new Board is able to make a difference between the players who just play for fun and those who play to win.

For the moment, WASPA is still taking its own way with a small circuit of tournaments and hopefully more clubs and nations will join the circuit in the next few weeks. Ideas and suggestions are always welcome so please don't hesitate to send your views by e-mail at vincent.cop@rsca.com

Another tournament in Malta - The next tournament to be organized by Attard SC will take place on December 9 in the evening and details are available from Joe Debono at jmdebono@onvol.net

Congratulations Pisa and Bologna - The WASPA community wold like to congratulate the team of Black & Blue Pisa, winner of the Champion's League, and the team of Bologna Tigers, winner of the Europa League. Both tournaments took place last week-end in Nova Gorica, Slovenia.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You can see the contact person for every tournament in the section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- November 27 - Tournament in Barcelona (Spain)
- December 9 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- December - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa) -> Details coming soon
- December - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus) -> Details coming soon

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Finland, Spain, Italy, Greece, germany, Singapore, the US, Canada, France, and Malta.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

The news of the week (19)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week.

Darren Bezzina is number 1 - The new rankings have been published (you can take a look on the "Golden book" available in the download section) and Darren Bezzina (right on the picture) remains the number 1 in the WASPA ranking. The player of the italian club SPQR Roma won last friday's tournament in Attard (Malta). He also became the first player to win 2 tournaments since the creation of the WASPA circuit. Well done.

More projects in Malta - After the last tournament in Malta, local organizer Joe Debono confirmed Attard Subbuteo Club will host another tournament in the next few weeks. Details will be announced soon.

Results of the survey - It seems like there is no enthusiasm to try to play with different rules. Therefore the project to play a tournament using the rule fo the direct free kick will not come to reality.

Good luck - The WASPA community wishes good luck to all the plaers who will be travelling to Slovenia this week-end to play the FISTF Europa Cups. European Cups remain some of the most exciting events in the world and it's always an honor to be part of the show.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You can see the contact person for every tournament in the section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- November 27 - Tournament in Barcelona (Spain)
- November - Tournament in Attard (Malta) -> Details coming soon
- December - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus) -> Details coming soon

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Malta, Finland, Belgium, Italy, the US, the UK, Greece, Canada, Spain and Germany.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

Updated results file

The updated golden book is available in the download section. Darren Bezzina has increased his lead on top of the ranking. He becomes also the first player to win two WASPA tournaments. Malta is still on top of the ranking of nations. Enjoy the reading.

Another great win for Darren Bezzina

The fourth tournament organized by Attard Subbuteo Club took place last friday and 16 players were competing. The tournament was not the most surprising one as the WASPA number 1 players, Darren Bezzina (SPQR Roma) came on top of his group and later qualified for the final. In the semi-final, he beat Daniele Spadaro (Attard SC) who is the number 2 in the ranking. Bezzina won the fainal against Nicholas Sciberras (3-2) and improves his lead in the ranking.

The finalists and some of the young talents taking part

George Ebejer from Bormla Subbuteo Club was taking part also

The news of the week (18)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week. There isn't much to say this week but hopefully there will be more soon!

News from El Palomar de Barcelona - The spanish club from Barcelona is now clearly promoting the WASPA circuit. The club run by Flavio Watzka will host their first WASPA tournament on November 27. Check more info at the club's blog: http://tablesoccerbarcelonapalomar.blogspot.com/

16 players for the Attard tournament - The following players are confirmed for this friday's tournament organized by Attard subbuteo club: Simon Gauci, Etienne Deguara, Joseph M.Debono, Timothy Spiteri, Daniele Spadaro, Clint Abela Wadge, Gordon Caruana, Brendon Borg, Nicholas Sciberras, Lon Joseph Cachia, Darren Bezzina, Robert Azzopardi, George Ebejer, Marco Mifsud, Hector Scerri, Sharlo Barbara.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You can see the contact person for every tournament in the section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- October 21 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- November 27 - Tournament in Barcelona (Spain)
- December - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus) -> Details coming soon

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Spain, Finland, Singapore, Belgium, the US, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Portugal.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

The news of the week (17)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week.

Updated results file - The results of the Stockholm tournament have been updated in the "golden book" that you can find in the download section.

Some pictures from Stockholm - Here are some pictures of the Stockholm tournament where Robert Green (with the yellow shirt) reached the final.

 

Another tournament in South Africa - The Johannesburg club has announced there will be a second WASPA tournament in december. The exact date and venue will be announced soon.

Contacts in Cyprus - Stefanos Kouratzis is happy to announce that the club of Nicosia is thinking about organizing a tournament. More details will be announced soon.

Well done Andrea - American player Andrea Gasparini, who recently won the WASPA tournament in Yokohama (Japan), won the FISTF Open of Rio (Brazil) last week-end. Antonio Carabillo (Hong Kong) was also taking part. Congratulations to both players for supporting tournaments in such an exotic place!

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You can see the contact person for every tournament in the section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- October 21 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- November 27 - Tournament in Barcelona (Spain)
- December - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus) -> Details coming soon

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Spain, Sweden, the US, Finland, Belgium, Italy, Greece, the UK, France and Germany. We also ad some visitors from the United Arab emirates, Hong Kong and Russia :-)

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

A french winner in Stockholm

Second tournament in Stockholm is over! David Cremoux (France) won the final against Robert Green (Australia) with 2-0. Massimiliano Ria (Italy) took the third place when he beat Lars Löfgren (Sweden) with 1-0 in the bronze game. Ari Kainu from Kiruna took a nice 5th place. More info and stats will come later. Thanks to O´Learys and all the participants!

A tournament in Cyprus?

Stefanos Kouratzis has been in touch this week-end to say there was some interest from the club of Nicosia to organize a WASPA tournament soon. The club of Nicosia has a small group of players but they are trying to keep the game alive on the island so hopefully there will be further developments in the near future.

The news of the week (16)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week.

A promising tournament in Sweden - There will be a good field of players this saturday in Stockholm for the second tournament organized by Lars Löfgren. 16 players are currently registered but even if a few of them don't show up, it will be an interesting tournament. This time there will be less "top men" from abroad but David Cremoux (France), finalist of the first Stockholm tournament, will try to confirm his job of favorite player.

Results of the survey - 20 people answered to the questions "What should be the main priority of WASPA?" and 9 people (45%) said "Have more tournaments in more countries?", 6 (30%) said "Make sure it becomes a registered non-profit organisation ASAP". Other answers were "Have tournaments with different age categories" (5%), "Have a better website" (5%) and "Have a better rulebook" (10%). 1 person had no opinion. Right now our priority will therefore to try to have more tournaments in more countries but we need to find ways to convince people to host tournaments. Despite we have very positive contacts in the US, Canada, Greece, Argentina and Australia, we struggle to find people ready to organize events. Tournaments in Malta, Sweden, South Africa and Singapore have been very successful while events in the US, Japan and Belgium had a poor turnout but a great feedback from the players. It seems like some nations like France and Italy are a bit scared to organize WASPA tournaments because the national associations just want to give a priority to national events. Spain will be our next guest. We struggle to find contacts in Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland and the UK despite some players from these nations told us they support the WASPA movement. So if you have ideas to develop the WASPA circuit, feel free to contact me at vincent.cop@rsca.com or post messages on the WASPA section of the international table football forum at http://tablefootball.friendhood.net/

Possible tournament to be added in Belgium - The Templeuve United club is thinking about hosting a WASPA tournament in december again. Templeuve United will hold a national tournament on december 17 but plans are under way to host a WASPA tournament a week earlier due to the visit of Singapore's Erza Aripin in Belgium. More details later.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You cans ee the contact person for every tournament int he section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- October 8 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)
- October 21 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- November 27 - Tournament in Barcelona (Spain)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Spain & the US (both as number 1), Finland, Germany, Russia, Belgium, Sweden, Greece, Australia, Italy.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

The news of the week (15)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week. Sorry for the delay but yesterday was a busy day at work.

Updated results file - You can now download the updated "golden book" from the download section. Results of the last tournament in Templeuve are included, just as some more statistics and the ranking of september.

A new number 1 - Darren Bezzina of Malta is the new number 1 in the WASPA ranking. Darren, a player of the italian club "SPQR Roma", was semi-finalist of the last tournament held in Attard.

Tournament cancelled in Australia - Due to the lack of entries, the tournament scheduled in Sylvania hs been cancelled. Even if this is disappointing, many discussions between australian players came up in the last few days to organize meetings and tournaments in the future.

More tournaments in Europe - The WASPA Calendar has been growing over the last few days as there will be some more tournament in Attard, Malta (october 21) and Barcelona, Spain (November 27).

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You cans ee the contact person for every tournament int he section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- October 21 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- October 8 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)
- November 27 - Tournament in Barcelona (Spain)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Spain, Singapore, Finland, the US, Greece, Australia, the UK, Malta, Belgium & Germany.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

Small turnout but big fun in Templeuve

Only 5 players from the host clubs showed up in yesterday's tournament in Templeuve (Belgium). The group stage was full of easy games fro top favorite Geoffrey Marain who won his 4 games. In the final, it was another story though as after leading 5-2 at half-time,t he game ended on an amazing 6-6. Vincent Coppenolle scored the decisive goal in the first minute of the sudden death to win the title. KevinD röhsler finishes 3rd? Elodie Bertholet 4th and Renald Deloose 5th.

Elodie Bertholet in action

Renald Deloose vs Geoffrey Marain

The final between Geoffrey Marain & Vincent Coppenolle

Another tournament in Malta

Attard Subbuteo Club will be organizing their 4th WASPA tournament on October 21 at "FX. Dingli Club". The entry fee will include three different types of pasta and a glass of red/wine wine. Details available from jmdebono@onvol.net or by phone at 21414712 or 99405867. Early booking is recommended.

A very first tournament in Spain

The club of Palomar Futbol Taula will be holding the very first WASPA tournament in Spain on November 27. The tournament will be open to a field of 12 players and games will be held in a sports center where football games and hockey games are played at the same time. Details are available from Flavio Watzka at flavio@parada13.jazztel.es

The news of the week (14)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week.

Some more picture of the Attard tournament - Here are some pictures of the final between Angelo Borg and Nicholas Sciberras in last week-end's final of the Attard tournament. The other picture is showing the presentation of the trophy to the winner, Angelo Borg.

Updated results file - Results of the Attard tournament have been added to the "Golden Book" (available from the "download section").

Ideas are welcome - There are 3 more tournaments to come in the agenda but we are looking for ideas on how to get more tournaments played in the future. We are looking for organizers to host events. Ideas are more than welcome!

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You cans ee the contact person for every tournament int he section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- September 28 - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium)
- October 1 - Tournament in Sylvania (Australia)
- October 8 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Spain, Finland, the US, Greece, Malta, Belgium, Italy, the UK, France & Germany.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

Angelo Borg wins in Malta

It was another great tournament this sunday in Attard, Malta where 16 players were present for the 3rd tournament organized by the local club. Players were coming from the host club but also from Hamrun SC, the italian side of SPQR Roman and the greek team of Piraeus Lions. Angelo Borg, who is the current world number 1 in the FISTF U19 ranking, won the tournament after a close final against Nicholas Sciberras. Darren Bezzina and Daniele Spadaro lost in the semi-finals and Daniele won the game for the 3rd place. Congratulations to all the players and special tahnks again to Joe Debono for organising a great tournament.

Nicholas Sciberras (runner-up), Daniele Spadaro (referee of the final) & Angelo Borg (winner).

The news of the week (13)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week.

Attard tournament on sunday - 16 players will be attending the "TAZZA INDIPENDENZA" tournament in Attard on sunday. Players will be droped in 4 groups of 4 players, games will start at 9.00 am and the final should take place at 12.45. The event will be plat at FX.DINGLI CLUB - MAIN STREET H`ATTARD. Visitors are more than welcome.

Updated results file - Results of the Johannesburg tournament have been added to the "Golden Book" (available from the "download section").

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You cans ee the contact person for every tournament int he section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- September 18 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- September 28 - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium)
- October 1 - Tournament in Sylvania (Australia)
- October 8 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Russia, the US, Finland, Greece, Singapore, South Africa, Belgium, Germany, Canada and France.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

Details of the tournament in Templeuve

The Templeuve tournament will be held on September 28 in the local sports center, which is also the headquarter of the Templeuve United club. The tournament will start at 6.00 pm and the registrations will be open till 4.00 pm by e-mail at vincent.cop@rsca.com

Renald Deloose, Elodie Bertholet, Geoffrey Marain, Kevin Dröhsler and Vincent Coppenolle have already confirmed they will be present.

Clifford Graaf is the african number 1

19 players took part last friday in the first WASPA tournament ever organized on the african soil. Panorama TFC was the host for the day and there were many good games. Players, aged between 8 and 47, were meeting in a great spirit and it was all about fair-play, having fun and making friends. The tournament was played in four groups and the top 2 players of each group qualified for the semi-finals. There was no surprise to see the most experienced players qualifying for the second round as Clifford Graaff, Jason Kennedy and Fernando Rodrigues were top of their groups but Cohen Naidoo (13 years old) also managed to win his group. Cohen later won his quater-final against Alex Rodrigues and his semi-final against Jason Kennedy. In the final, Clifford Graaff proved he's the african number 1 player by beating Cohen Naidoo (1-0). Hopefully this will be the first of many more tournaments to come in South Africa!

The news of the week (12)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week.

Some news from South Africa - Friday evening will see the first WASPA tournament on African soil and Clifford Graaff is hoping for a good turnout. Plans are discussed to hold a series of these tournaments every three months - so it will be 4 tournaments for the year and then have a series winner. As per the SATFA statutes there will also be holding the national champs towards the end of the year - this is the highest seeded tournament.

More about the Yokohama tournament - Massimo Conturso's excellent SC Connecticut website gave a some more details about Andrea Gasparini's win in Yokohama. The presence of a dozen of spectators (men and women), who cheered for the home players until the very end, enriched the well organized, 3 hours long tournament. The local club was particularly gracious and
offered a snack of pizza and Japanese specialties half way the event, as well as an after-tournament dinner. The competition saw a clear supremacy of the Italian expats, Andrea Gasparini (USA) and Hong Kong's Antonio Carabillo. Andrea & Antonio shared points in their scoreless match and the first place position. However, Andrea claimed the final victory thanks to a better goal differential. What better way to celebrate his 37th birthday! Andrea Gasparini had also won the FISTF Grand Prix of Argentina last season and played the FISTF World Cup in Palermo in July.

News from Malta - The "TAZZA INDIPENDENZA" of September 18 will be another great tournament as 16 players are already registered to play.

Results, rankings and statistics - The updated "golden book" is available from the "Download Section" (right column). The file reveals the new ranking and there are already 59 players ranked in the table of august. The points of the Yokohama tournament will be added in the ranking of september.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future.
- September 9 - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa)
- September 18 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- September 27 - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) - date to be confirmed
- October 1 - Tournament in Sylvania (Australia)
- October 8 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from the US, the UK, Malta, Germany, Finland, Greece, Belgium, Singapore, Italy and Portugal. Among the "exotic" countries, we also had visitors from Indonesia, Chile and Burkina Faso!

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

Updated results and rankings file

If you like results, statistics and rankings, the updated file with all the WASPA stuff is now available from https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4_PpphlADgVNDU3MTY1ZGEtOGRiNS00YWYyLWIwMmEtYzJlOWM3ODRmOTA0&hl=en_US

Ideas, suggestions, proposals are always welcome to make things better!

Andrea Gasperini wins in Yokohama

The very first WASPA tournament took place this sunday at the Noge Hana Hana Hall in Yokohama. The tournament was not only a chance for the best local players to meet foreign players (Andrea gasparini from the US and Antonio Carabillo from Hong Kong), there was also a workshop for beginners. Andrea and Antonio teached the game to the new players and in total, 14 players were taking part.

The top 5 players played the "official" tournament under WASPA banner and every player played each other. At the end, Andrea Gasparini and Antonio Carabillo had 10 points but Andrea won the tournament thanks to a better goal-average!

New date for the next maltese tournament

The "TAZZA INDIPENDENZA" tournament organized by Attard SC will be held on September 18, 2011 at "FX. Dingli Club H'Attard", Main Street. The kick-off will be at 10.00. there will be trophies for the four semi-finalists. Entries must be sent to Joe Debono at jmdebono@onvol.net

A few more shots of the Attard tournaments

Here are a few more pictures of the tournaments held in Malta this wednesday.

The news of the week (11)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week.

Darren Bezzina wins the "Joseph M. Debono Cup" - 16 players competed in this wednesday's tournament in Attard (Malta). Darren Bezzina, who now plays for the italian team of SPQR Roma, was the winner of the competition. He came on top of his group before beating Nicholas Sciberras in the semi-final (1-0). In the final, he beat Daniele Spadaro (5-3). Gordon Caruana was the other semi-finalist.

From left to right: Darren Bezzina (winner), Daniele Spadaro (runner-up), Nicholas Sciberras (3rd), Gordon Caruana (4th).

New leader in the WASPA ranking - After his victory in Attard, Darren Bezzina becomes the new number 1 in the WASPA ranking. The full table will be published as soon as we get the full results of the Singapore tournament.

One more tournament in Malta - After the Attard tournament, Joe Debono announced the club of Attard will hold a third tournament on September 25, which will be called the "Independance Cup".

Results of the survey - 20 people answered to the questions about the structure of the WASPA circuit. The question was "Do you think we should have 2 types of tournaments already next season if we keep "regional" tournaments as they are and "national tournaments with the possibility for each club to host one tournament per season?"
12 answered that "Yes but National events would need to have better organisation standards than regional events" (60%)
2 answered that "National events can give more ranking points but it's not a priority" (10%)
4 answered "I'd better keep things as they are now" (20%)
2 had no opinion
Conclusion: there will be some proposals to make some bigger tournaments in the future. As we are not sure it will be a very good thing to make different types of tournaments, the circuit wil remain as it is at least till January. If there are good proposals and ideas to make sure "national tournaments" are something special, this will be discussed through another survey.

Status update from Stockholm Tournament at O´Learys Gamla Stan - The event to be held on October 8 is being prepared and the following players will problably participate in the tournament: Robert Green, Yupa Kaewwongsa. Peter Elio, Jesper Willaume, Lars Löfgren, Ari Kainu, Anders Virtala. Players have a 15 % discount at Collectors Hotels that lies in Gamla Stan in Stockholm. Feel free to contact Lars Löfgren for more details.

A growing circuit - With new events added in the agenda (in Malta, Sweden, Japan, South Africa, Belgium, Australia), the circuit is growing quickly. There is interest also from Spain, Greece and the UK so hopefully there will be many more tournaments in the next few months.

New project in Malaysia - CK Au (jack208@boardgamecafe.net) is trying to start a new project at Boardgamecafe.net, which is moving to a new place that will allow him to set up a subbuteo table. CK and his partners are planning to give another shot at reviving this game in Malaysia and once they have settled into their new centre, the will get back on details. This might be an important step to develop connections with players from Singapore in the future!

Postponed tournament in the US - The tournament planned for last week-end in Connecticut has been postponed. More details on the new date will be announced soon.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future.
- September 4 - Tournament in Yokohama (Japan)
- September 9 - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa)
- September 25 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- September 27 - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) - to be confirmed
- October 1 - Tournament in Sylvania (Australia)
- October 8 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from the UK, Finland, Russia (!), Greece, Malta, Sweden, Canada, the US, Germany and Italy. We also had visitors from Indonesia!

Subbuteo in Russia - The blog has had a lot of visitors from Russia over the last few days. If there are some players over there, don't hesitate to drop us a line at vincent.cop@rsca.com. We are here to help you!

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

Attard tournament tonight

16 players will be competiting in tonight's tournament in Attard (Malta), which is the second WASPA tournament held on the island. Players will be put in four groups of four players and the draw is as follows.
Group 1: Simon Gauci, Joseph Azzopardi, Nicholas Sciberras (Hamrun SC), Robert Azzopardi
Group 2: Daniele Spadaro, Clint Abela Wadge, Joseph M. Debono, Lon Joseph Cachia
Group 3: Hector Scerri, Etienne Deguara, Mario Spiteri, Darren Bezzina (SPQR Roma)
Group 4: Timothy Spiteri, Brendon Borg, Gordon Caruana, Marco Mifsud
PS: all players are members of Attard Subbuteo Club unless noted.

A second tournament in Sweden

We are pleased to announce that there will be another tournament in Sweden on October 8. The tournament, organized by Lars Löfgren, will be held at the O'Leary restaurant and the games will start at 13.00. The address of the venue is Järntorgsgatan 5, Gamla Stan, Stockholm. Details available at the following e-mail address: lars.lofgren@bordshockeyexperten.se

A first tournament in Japan

We are pleased to announce that the very first WASPA tournament in Japan will be held on September 4 in Yokohama. Details can be found from Kenzo Koi at koikoifulie@hotmail.com

The news of the week (10)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week.

Results of the Stockholm tournament - After the tournament, the winner, Marcus Tilgner from Germany, gave his feelings about the event: "The impression of the whole tournament was really good. Lars did a great job in organising everything perfectly including new tables, discount at the bar for the players, t-shirts and so on. Well done, I am already looking forward too seeing you all again!"
The results can be seen on a very nice page at http://home.arcor.de/mtilgner/international/stockholm11.htm

About the Singapore tournament - The results of the Singapore tournament will be published as soon as we get the results file from the organizers. The feedback about the tournament was really positive

Tournament in England - There are good chances a tournament will be held on September 24 by the club of Yorkshire Phoenix. Paul Lawrenson's club is organizing a circuit of 4 "Super League" meeets throughout the season, which are generally held in September, November, February and April and the tournaments could be classed as WASPA events. The first of these is to be staged on September 24th at Wakefield Wilcats Rugby Stadium. More details will be coming soon.

Singapore players on tour - Christopher Soh (Subbuteo_aficionado@hotmail.com), a player from Singapore, will be in Europe between September 22 and October 4. He would be happy to play some games, in particular when he is in LONDON and BARCELONA. Feel free to contact him to arrange a game. Also, Erza Aripin will probably be playing some game in Belgium on December 10 & 11 so it will be a good chance for Europeans to meet him!

First tournament in Spain - There are plans to organize a tournament in Barcelona during the celebrations days at "Sant Andreu del Palomar" in Barcelona. The tournament will be held in November but the exact date is still to be decided. More details with the location and the date will be announced soon.

First WASPA tournament in Australia - Brett Davis is announcing details about the firstW ASPA tournament in Austraia can be found here: http://www.southernbattlegamers.org/moabsite/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=95:1st-waspa-subbuteo-tournament-2011&catid=11:competitions-a-events-2011&Itemid=3

Tournament in Malta - The forthcoming tournament in Malta will be held on August 31. 16 players are registered and theyw ill be dropped in 4 groups of 4 players. the top players of each group will play the semi-finals.

News from Canada - Due to the low number of competitors, there was no tournament in Toronto last week-end but the players had some games and talks about how to get more players involved in the future. Hopefully there will be some good news from Canada in the next few weeks.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future.
- August 27 - Tournament in England (details coming soon) - to be confirmed
- August 28 - Tournament in Farmington, CT (USA)
- August 31 - Tournament in Malta (details coming soon)
- September 9 - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa)
- September 27 - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) - to be confirmed
- October 1 - Tournament in Sylvania (Australia)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from the the Singapore, Finland, the UK, Germany, the US, Italy, Latvia, Sweden, Belgium and Malta.

Subbuteo in Latvia - The blog has had a lot of visitors from Latvia orver the last few days. If there are some players over there, don't hesitate to drop us a line at vincent.cop@rsca.com. We are here to help you!

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

Some more pictures from Stockholm

Here are some more shots from last week-end's tournament in Sweden

A great t-shirt!

Robert Green (Australia) and Marcus Tilgner (Germany)

As you can see, subbuteo is back in Sweden and the local players wear great t-shirts

 

Singapore, the largest WASPA tournament

Last sunday's tournament in Singapore was definately the most important WASPA tournament ever held with 25 players competing in 2 categories. Den Mulia won the Open section after defeating Henry Peh. Fadzly won the Junior tournament, beating Farhan in the final. Well done to all players and special thianks to Rudy Norita for organizing a great tournament.

The players still present for the presentation of the trophies

Open Winners (from Left to right: Ezan (Plate winner), Den Mulia (Champion), Henry Peh (Runner-up) & John Ho (2nd runner-up)

Junior Winners (From Left: Fadzly (Champion), Azhar (Plate winner), Manto (2nd runner-up) & Farhan (runner-up)

Den Mulia, Singapore's top player!

Marcus Tilgner wins in Stockholm

Marcus Tilgner became this sunday the first player to win a tournament in Sweden. The Stockholm tournament was part of the WASPA circuit and attracted players from Sweden, Australia, france, Italy, Finland and Sweden. The event was played in the O'Leary restaurant and the 8 competitors could play a good number of games as the tournament was set up as a group of 8. The top 2 qualified for the final and int he decisive game, Marcus Tilgner beat France's David Cremoux (1-0). It was a good day for the sport and for the game of subbuteo. Hopefully more tournaments will be held in Sweden. Special thanks go to Lars Löfgren for being the organizer of the event!

The news of the week (9)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week. Big moves are coming up with big tournaments this week-end and some more announcements of future events.

Stockholm tournament - Lars Löfgren looks very happy to organize the first tournament ever held in Sweden this sunday. the tournament will start at 12.00 at O´Learys restaurant in sundbyberg and it looks like there will be 10 participants in the tournament. We will play 2 groups where the first 4 advances to quarter-finals. The reason for this is that everyone should feel that they have played a couple of games. The final should be around 18.00-18:30. Participants:
1, Marcus Tilgner (GER)
2, Massimilano Ria (ITA)
3, Kari Hakkarainen (FIN)
4, Robert Green (AUS)
5, David Cremoux (FRA)
6, Francesco La Torre (ITA)
7, Jeremy Bradley (ENG)
8, Lars Löfgren (SWE)
9, Ulf Gullstedt (SWE)
10, Glenn Nordh (SWE)
It's not too late to join! Late entries are still possible by joining Lars. For any question, Lars's number is +46737025177.

Singapore tournament - Rudy Norita is happy to announce that the best singapore layers, John Ho, Christopher Soh, Den Mulia and Kok Wee will be attending the first WASPA tournament inn the country. Unfortunately Erza Aripin will not be present due to work commitments but there will be a good field of players.

South Africa - Not only the club of Panorama TFC will hold their first WASPA tournament on September 9 but the club will start their new season this friday with a great field of 13 players competing in the league. Well done and good luck to all players involved. details can be seen on the club's website at http://premiersubbuteoleague.leaguerepublic.com/

Tournament in the US - The upcoming ASA Open in Connecticut of August 28 will count as a WASPA event. The organizer Massimo Conturso hopes they a good number of players. The tournament will take the name of 14th New England Cup. The New England Cup or Championship was first played as Fall Interleague in Farmington, CT on October 20, 2002. Since then, 12 more editions followed, the last of those is dated May 2009. Read more: http://americansubbuteo.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=recent#ixzz1VA4SBxsc

Tournament in Belgium - A tournament should be organized on September 27 in Templeuve. Matches should start at 6.30 pm to finish between 10 and 10.30. More details should be available soon.

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 hosted in Toronto (Canada) - to be confirmed
- August 21 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)
- August 27 - Tournament in England (details coming soon) - to be confirmed
- August 28 - Tournament in Farmington, CT (USA)
- August 31 - Tournament in Malta (details coming soon)
- September 9 - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa)
- September 27 - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) - to be confirmed
- October 1 - Tournament in Sylvania (Australia)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from the the UK, Finland, Singapore, the US, Canada, germany, Malta, Belgium, Japan and Spain.

International visitors? - The blog has had visits from Russia, Chile, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Ivory Coast,... If there are players over there, we would really be happy to hear from you! Please drop me a line at vincent.cop@rsca.com so that we can see if we can help you!

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

Johannesburg on September 9th

The very first WASPA tournament in South Africa will be held on September 9th at the Panorama Sports Club. Details are available from Clifford Graaff at graaff@mweb.co.za

A new baby in the Gauci family

The current number 1 in the WASPA ranking became a father for the thrid time on August 7th. Simon Gauci and his wife are the happy parents of a little Yasina. She's the third child in the family after Micwen (11) and Colton (9).

The news of the week (8)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week. There isn't much to say this week but there will be much more in the coming week as several tournaments will be held.

New ball in Singapore - The Singapore association is always full of great ideas. Rudy Norita has sent us a picture of the ball that will be used for the forthcoming WASPA tournament organized by Leste' Aquila SC. Enjoy :-)

Big turnout for the Stockholm tournament - Lars Löfgren has announced 16 players (and maybe up to 20) will be competing in the forthcoming WASPA tournament inS tockholm, Sweden on August 21. New tables have been built and some trophies will be offered. As a reminder, this will be an historic event for table football as it will be the first tournament ever in Sweden.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future.
- August 12 (or 19) - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa)
- August 21 - Tournament hosted by Leste' Aquila SC (Singapore)
- August 21 - Tournament hosted in Toronto (Canada) (-> to be confirmed)
- August 21 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)
- August 27 - Tournament in England (details coming soon)
- August 31 - Tournament in Malta (details coming soon)
- October 1 - Tournament in Sylvania (Australia)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from the Finland, Belgium, Portugal, germany, Greece, Canada, Italy, the US, the UK and Astralia.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

The news of the week (7)

Hello everyone, here is a quick look on the news of the week.

A big month for the WASPA players - August will definately be an important month for WASPA as several tournaments are being organized in the next few weeks. The Stockholm tournament is probably the most expected event as it will be the first tournament in Stockholm, Sweden and players from 7 different nations are expected to take part. We hope that there will be enough tables so that players can have a good number of games.

Malta is also preparing to have their second tournament. Attard Subbuteo Club will be the host club on August 31 and 15 players are already registered! Simon Gauci will try to defend his leadership in the WASPA ranking.

South Africa is coming up with their very first tournament. Clifford Graaff is still doing a great job to promote the game in Johannesburg and all over the country and it will a great moment in the history of subbuteo, not only because it is one more nation organizing a tournament but also because it's important to have some presence in Africa! Details: http://premiersubbuteoleague.leaguerepublic.com/

The tournament in Singapore on August 21 will also be very important for WASPA and for the local community. The club of Leste' Aquila recently organized a FISTF Future tournament with 34 different players coming from the 4 clubs of Singapore. We hope the next event will be very successful as well.

Possible tournament in Canada - Allan Thornton is trying to organize a tournament in Toronto on August 21. He is trying to get players together and hopefully he will have enough interest. Details: allan@torontosubbuteo.com
You can also visit Allan's shop at http://www.torontosubbuteo.com/store

Great news from Australia - As we already announced it earlier this week, there will be a tournament in Australia on October 1. For any question, feel free to contact Brett Davis at wolfden@bigpond.net.au

Structure of the calendar - I created a survey to know the opinion of our players about the future development of the calendar. One of the ideas is to create several types of tournaments. The positive point in creating "national" tournaments is to try to have bigger events with better venues and better organisation standards. The negative point is that it could make a bigger gap between players who can play many tournaments and those who can play just once a year. All opinions are welcome!

A blog in green - the colors of the blog have been changed. There are also some minor change in the way the articles are posted. I hope you like it!

Our forum - Don't forget that you comment about what's going on in WASPA in the WASPA section of the International Table Football Forum at http://tablefootball.friendhood.net/

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future.
- August 12 (or 19) - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa)
- August 21 - Tournament hosted by Leste' Aquila SC (Singapore)
- August 21 - Tournament hosted in Toronto (Canada) (-> to be confirmed)
- August 21 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)
- August 27 - Tournament in England (details coming soon)
- August 31 - Tournament in Malta (details coming soon)
- October 1 - Tournament in Sylvania (Australia)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from the US (35), Italy, the United Kingdom, Malta, Greece, Belgium & Germany, South Africa, Finland and Canada.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

The first WASPA tournament in Australia

Brett Davis has confirmed that the venue for an Australian WASPA Tournament is booked in for 1st October 2011 at MOAB (Mother of All Battles) organised by Southern Battle Gamers, Sylvania Heights Community and Youth Club - Box Road, Sylvania. NSW 2224. Brett needs to thank Kym Pennell from the Battle Gamers who allowed us to come and play at MOAB and give our great game some public view. Details available from Brett Davis at wolfden@bigpond.net.au

Another tournament in Malta

It is now confirmed there will be a tournament in Malta on August 31. The event will be organized by Attard Subbuteo Clbu and will be called the "Joseph M. Debono Cup". This competition is Open to all Maltese players. The exact venue is going to be published later during the month of August. Closing date for the registration is Wednesday August 24th 2011. Details: jmdebono@onvol.net

South Africa joins WASPA

Clifford Graaff has contacted us to say he will be organizing the first WASPA tournament in South Africa. The exact date and the locationw ill be announced soon. For more details about the game in South Africa, feel free to check the following website: http://premiersubbuteoleague.leaguerepublic.com/

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

The news of the week (5)

Hello, nothing much to say this week as most people are concentrating on the the forthcoming FISTF World Cup to be held in Palermo, Sicily. Despite the tournament will be one of the smallest world cup ever due to the very poor number of players and countries taking part, we wish everyone a lot of fun for the week-end. We also hope that, in the future, the FISTF will listen to the needs of the players and chose beter locations and, more importantly, a beter date for the World Cup. There mere many voices concerned about the fact the WC is held in July, which makes things more difficult for everyone to travel. Instead of waiting how things are advancing, the Board has confirmed the next world cup will be held in July 2012 in Greece. And surprisingly, the Greeks have just announced they will not attend the world cup this week-end...

Malta - As you could read earlier this week, Simon Gauci won the first WASPA tournament in Malta and became number 1 in the new rankings. Congratulations Simon! We also expect Malta to organize another tournament in september. The exact date and locationw ill be announced soon.

England - A tournament mught be held in Kent on August 27 as Miguel Pereira is organizing the "Subbuteo Summer School" to try to attract more new players in the summer. More details will be revealed soon.

Surveys - Looks like the big majority of visitors of the blog like the WASPA project. 63% of visitors said they will attend WASPA events in the future.

Rankings - From what the survey on the blog revealed, most people think it's important to have rankings even if many of them think it's not a priority. Therefore the WASPA rankings will be edited every month and published in the "Golden boo" (see download section).

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 date of the tournament in Australia (planned for 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 (100), Malta, Germany, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Greece, Belgium, the USA, Spain and France.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

Simon Gauci is the new number 1

The finals of the "Summer Cup" organized by Attard Subbuteo Club finally took place on monday. The tournament had been stopped last thursday after the group stage due to the heat and the presence of the Mayor of Attard. Therefore, the semi-finals took place this week and both Daniele Spadaro and simon Gauci qualified for the final after beating Hector Scerri and Timothy Spiteri. Both games ended on 2-1. In the final, Simon Gauci won on a short 1-0. this was enough to claim the title and the become the number 1 player of the WASPA ranking.

The results file and the updated ranking are available in the "golden book" that you can find in the download section of the blog.

The winner: Simon Gauci (left)

The semi-finalists: Simon Gauci - Timothy Spiteri - Hector Scerri - Daniele Spadaro.