Combined World Championships and World Cup of Table Soccer to Kick Off in Nantes, France, January 7-11, 2010

Nantes, France - The International Table Soccer Federation (ITSF) has announced that its two most premier tournaments, the World Championships Finals and the World Cup of Table Soccer, will be combined at one venue: the Complexe Mangin Beaulieu in Nantes, France. To be held January 7-10, 2010, 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 year-long, 50 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. The World Cup portion will feature 60 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: Bonzini™, Garlando, Roberto-Sport, Lehmacher Tec Ball, and Valley-Dynamo's Tornado Table Soccer™.

Key players to watch include World #1-ranked Frederico Collignon of Belgium, and the USA's Ryan Moore, currently ranked #2 in the world: both will be gunning for last year's defending champion, Yannick Correia of Luxembourg. The women's side of the competition is also expected to be intense, with #1-ranked Sarka Holomoucka of the Czech Republic seeking to win her first World Title against a strong field of tour veterans and new challengers. Meanwhile, the reigning men's World Cup of Table Soccer Champions – the United States – will have their hands full as past rivals Austria, Belgium, Germany and the UK are looking stronger than ever.

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, and Le Mouv, among others, while media partners include EuroSport2, Kazoom Production, Production 44, and Presse Ocean. All press and spectators and are welcome to attend. Training warm-up begins on Thursday the 7th at 8:00 a.m., with preliminary rounds of the World Championship events beginning at 9:00 a.m. 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 8th.

This combined event serves as both the final event of the 2009 ITSF World Pro Table Soccer Tour and the kickoff of the tour for 2010. Other major tour events for 2010 are already scheduled for France, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands and the United States. Even more qualifying events are planned for countries as diverse as the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Japan, Poland, Mexico, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Indeed, the 2010 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: +33-240-479-084; Email: info@table-soccer.org
Larry Davis, ITSF Media Commission, 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