Table football, commonly called fuzboll or foosball (as in the German Fußball “football”) and sometimes table soccer, is a table-top game that is loosely based on association football.
Rules 1. If the terms are not discussed the looser chooses the prize or wanted item 2. You will play till one player gets 8 scores in the opponents goal
History
Although patents for similar games may exist from as far back as the 1890s, the game of table football as we know it today was first invented by Harold Searles Thornton in 1922 and patented in 1923 (UK patent no. 205,991 application dated 14 October 1922 and accepted 1 November 1923)
The concept was conceived after Harold had been to a Tottenham Hotspur F.C. football match (he was an avid supporter). He wanted to provide a game that replicated football that could be played at home. The inspiration came from a box of matches: by laying the matches across the box he had formed the basis of his game.
His uncle (United States resident Louis P. Thornton, who once lived in Portland, Oregon) visited Harold and took the inspiration back to the USA where it was patented in 1927 (United States Patent Office No. 1,615,491). However, he didn’t see a lot of success with the game and let his patent expire. It wasn’t until decades later that the game took off in the USA.
Meanwhile in Europe, the first leagues started springing up in the 1950s, and the European Table Soccer Union was formed in 1976. American soldier Lawrence Patterson re-introduced the game in the USA after playing in while stationed in Germany in the 1960s. He brought the first Bavarian-made table to the USA in 1962. Upon doing so, he trademarked the term “foosball” in both the USA and Canada, and gave his table the name “Foosball Match.” [4] In 1970, Hayes and Furr created the first America-made foosball table, and shortly thereafter the game became a national phenomenon that lasted until video games became popular in the 1980s.
In 2002, the International Table Soccer Federation (ITSF) was established in France with the mission of promoting the sport of Table Soccer as an organizing sports body, regulating international competitions, and establishing the game with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and General Association of International Sport Federation (GAISF). The U.S. joined ITSF in 2003.
Competition
Table football is often played for fun in pubs, bars, workplaces, schools, and clubs with few rules. Table football is also played in official competitions organized by a number of national organizations, with highly evolved rules and regulations. Although organized competition can be traced back to the 1940s and 1950s in Europe, the professional tours and big money events began when the founding father of modern professional table soccer, Lee Peppard of Seattle, Washington, announced a “Quarter Million Dollar Tour” in 1976.[citation needed] Several organizations and promoters have continued holding large purse professional table soccer events worldwide. In 1976 Bobby Brown of Green Felt Billiards ended the season with 1305 points, the most ever recorded in a season.
The ITSF now regulates International events including the annual World Championships and the World Cup. The World Cup was originally intended to coincide with the FIFA World Cup, but since January 2009 it has run annually. In the ITSF World Cup and World Championships 2013, almost 500 players from 30 countries congregated in Nantes, France to compete. Team US produced a tremendous performance and won the World Cup.
Former Polish president Lech Kaczyński and former coach of the Polish national team Leo Beenhakker play table football
The ITSF World Tour has also recently expanded to include Asian countries. China, Taiwan and Malaysia played host to ITSF sanctioned tournaments in 2013.[10] In 2016, the Philippines hosted The Manila Bay Open.