Combined World Championships and World Cup of Table Soccer to Kick Off in Nantes, France, January 6-9, 2011

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 6-9, 2011, as many as 500 of the world's best table soccer (a.k.a. "foosball") players from up to 40 countries will 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, women's, seniors' and juniors' 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 last year's defending champion, the USA's Ryan Moore. The women's side of the competition is also expected to be intense, with #1-ranked Sandra Ranff of Germany seeking to win her first World Singles title against a strong field of tour veterans and new challengers. Meanwhile, the two-time, back-to-back reigning men's World Cup of Table Soccer Champions – the United States – will have their hands full as past rivals France, Germany, Netherlands 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 SUBWAY® Restaurants, among others, while media partners include EuroSport2, Kozoom Production, Presse Ocean and Nantes 7. A press and players' welcome party will be held Wednesday the 5th at 8:00 p.m. Training warm-up begins on Thursday the 6th at 8:00 a.m., with preliminary rounds of the World Championship events beginning at 9:00 a.m. Events continue each day through late evening, and the World Cup finals will be on Sunday. A special Opening Ceremonies will be at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, January 7th. Spectators are welcome to attend all ceremonies and tournament competition.

This combined event serves as both the final event of the 2010 ITSF World Pro Table Soccer Tour and the kickoff of the tour for 2011. Other major tour events for 2011 are already scheduled for Austria, the Czech Republic, Turkey and the United States. Even more qualifying events are planned for countries as diverse as Lithuania, Slovakia, Japan, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Indeed, the 2011 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 websites:

www.table-soccer.org - ITSF Website: World Rankings / Tour News / ITSF World Cup & Championships Event Information
www.itsfworldtour.com/worldcup/videos.php - Live video feed begins online January 6th!!

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