INTERNATIONAL TABLE SOCCER FEDERATION BEGINS COMBINED WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS AND WORLD CUP TOURNAMENT IN NANTES, FRANCE

Nantes, France - The International Table Soccer Federation (ITSF) has announced that for the first time their two most premier tournaments, the World Championships Finals and the World Cup of Table Soccer, will be combined into a single spectacular competition. To be held January 8-11, 2009 at the Complexe Mangin Beaulieu in Nantes, France, as many as 500 of the world's best table soccer (a.k.a. "foosball") players from approximately 40 countries will be on hand to compete for the overall titles and prizes.

As the culmination of a five-continent, 55 tournament World Pro Tour, the World Championships portion will feature singles and doubles events for men, women, seniors and juniors and is limited to those having qualified as national champions or as top World Tour rankings and event qualifiers. Meanwhile, the World Cup portion will feature 52 men's and women's teams competing in an event specially formatted for this tournament. As a true test of all around foosball skills, competition will take place on all five ITSF "Official" styles of tables: Brunswick's Tornado Table Soccer™, Bonzini™, Garlando, Roberto-Sport and Lehmacher Tec Ball.

Key players to watch include the USA's amazing Tony Spredeman who, despite a back injury early in the season, has been on fire all year as he chalked up stunning defeats of many of the world's top players (including World #1 Frederico Collignon of Belgium). The women's side of the competition is also expected to be intense, with multi-time ITSF World Champion Samantha Di Paolo of Switzerland certain to face both World #1-ranked Tessa Otten-Kerkhof (Netherlands) and arch-rival/all-time leading women's money-winner Cindy Head (USA).

The tournament is sanctioned by the ITSF and hosted by the French Table Soccer Federation (Fédération Française de Football de Table). Sponsors of the event include Region Pays de la Loire, Ville de Nantes, 20 Minutes, and Le Mouv, among others. Spectators and press are welcome to attend. Training warm-up begins on Wednesday the 7th at 6:00 p.m., with preliminary rounds of the World Championship events beginning at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday. Events continue each day until midnight, and the World Cup finals will be on Sunday. A special Opening Ceremonies will be at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, January 9th.

This combined event serves as both the final event of the 2008 ITSF World Pro Table Soccer Tour and the kickoff of the tour for 2009. Other major tour events for 2009 are already scheduled for France, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands and the United States. Even more qualifying events are planned for countries as diverse as Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Japan, Poland, Mexico, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Indeed, the 2009 tour is expected to be the largest world table soccer tour ever!!

For additional details about this event and/or the sport of table soccer, please see the following website:

www.table-soccer.org - ITSF Website: World Rankings / Tour News / ITSF World Cup & Championships Event Information

For more information, photos, or for an electronic version of this release, please contact:
Christine Cabrera, ITSF, Tel: +33-240-20-52-38; Email: info@table-soccer.org
Larry Davis, ITSF Media Commission President, Tel: +1-563-580-9485; Email: larry.davis@ustsf.foosball.com

International Table Soccer Federation
27 rue Adolphe Moitie - 44000 Nantes, France
Tel: +33 2 40 47 90 84 Fax: +33 2 40 20 44 59
E-mail: info@table-soccer.org ITSF Website: www.table-soccer.org