THE INTERNATIONAL TABLE SOCCER FEDERATION ANNOUNCES WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS FINALS TOURNAMENT IN ST.VINCENT, ITALY! - World’s Top “Foosball” Superstars to Face Off in Ultimate Overall Competition -

Valle d’Aoste, Italy - The International Table Soccer Federation (ITSF) World Championships Finals tournament will take place November 3-5 at the St. Vincent Palazzeto dello Sport, Valle d’Aoste, Italy. As the culmination of the five-continent, 35-tournament 2006 ITSF World Pro Tour, the very best table soccer (a.k.a. “foosball”) players from approximately 40 countries will be on hand to compete for the overall titles, cash and prizes.

All eyes will be on World #1-ranked Billy Pappas from the USA, as he squares off against Belgian superstar Frederico Collignon, who has dominated this and other tournaments worldwide for the last several years. Other top challengers include #3-ranked Rob Atha (UK), and several members of the U.S., German, and French National Foosball Teams, including: Terry Moore (USA), Robert Mares (USA), Dave Gummeson (USA), Djamal Allalou (Germany), Olivier Covos (France), Tim Ludwig (Germany) and more.

The women’s side of the competition is expected to be especially fierce with local favorite, defending champion and World #1-ranked Samantha Di Paolo (Italy) facing multi-time World Champion Cindy Head (USA) for the first time ever. Both highly-charged, aggressive players, they’ll additionally meet tough competition in Austria’s Verena Rohrer and Canada’s Moya Tielens, among others.

Participation in the tournament is limited to ITSF World Pro Tour Event Champions, tour “points” leaders, and the National Champions from all ITSF member countries, who will compete in specially formatted Singles and Doubles events. In 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.

The tournament is sanctioned by the ITSF and hosted by the Italian Table Soccer Federation (Federazione Italiana de Calcio Balilla) and its president, Massimo Ragona. Sponsors of the event include the Casino de la Vallee and the Community of St. Vincent – “the Riviera of the Alps.” Spectators and press are welcome to attend and there is no admission fee to enter the tournament arena. The first round of competition will begin at 7:00 p.m., followed by Opening Ceremonies, on Friday, November 3rd. All finals will be on Sunday the 5th.

This will be the final stop on the 2006 ITSF World Pro Table Soccer Tour. Other major tour events took place this year in France, Austria, Italy and the United States, with even more qualifying events in countries as diverse as Japan, the Czech Republic, Costa Rica, Poland, South Africa, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. And for 2007, there will be more than 40 tour stops worldwide in 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:

http://www.table-soccer.org/news/sport/documents/world_championships_information_and_schedule.pdf

www.table-soccer.org - ITSF Website/International Rankings
www.tischfussball-wm-2006.de/eng_teams.html - Official World Cup of Table Soccer Website/Results
www.ustsf.org - Official U.S. Table Soccer Federation Website
www.foosball.com - General Information about the Sport of Table Soccer

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

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