Weekly newsletter of the FISTF

This is the weekly newsletter of the FISTF (Federation of International
Sports Table Football).
If you don't want to receive further information from FISTF, reply with
"Remove" as subject.
If some of your friends want to receive the FISTF news, they can drop me a
line and I will add them to my distribution list.
Players and fans are welcome to send their news to be posted in this
newsletter. Former editions of this newsletter (1-288) are available by
e-mail.
More can be found on WWW.FISTF.COM and discussions are going on on the
website's discussion Board (http://www.phpbber.com/phpbb/fistf.html).

http://www.fistf.info © 2006 FEDERATION INTERNATIONAL SPORTS TABLE
FOOTBALL. All Rights Reserved.

Also, don't hesitate to send your pieces of news for the next issues !

In this week's issue...
1. Highlights of 2009
2. Which future for the FISTF Board?
3. Your opinion counts
4. Satellites in Bergkamen
5. Valletta Subbuteo Club Website

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visit the FISTF forum: http://www.phpbber.com/phpbb/fistf.html
Visit the FISTF blog: http://fistfnews.blogspot.com/
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1. Highlights of 2009
Here is a brief review of the sports year 2009. Hope you enjoy it.
* Daniele Bertelli: 2 months after winning the Grand Prix of Italy, the
Italian is world champion again. At the end of a perfect day, he beat
Valéry Dejardin to win the title in Rotterdam. The other world champions
are Delphine Dieudonné (ladies), Martijn Bom (veterans), Bjorn Kegenbein
(U19), Emanuele Lo Cascio (U15) and Diego Tagliaferri (U12). Italy picks up
4 team titles while Belgium wins the ladies section and Spain wins the U19
tournament.
* The European Cup for clubs in held in Tournai (Belgium) and 32 teams are
competing, which is a world premiere. The italian team of Eagles Napoli
wins the final against TFC Mattersburg.
* Eric Verhagen: the Dutchman is one of the hotest men in the circuit. He
wins in Temploux, Edimburgh and Issy. These three tournament were among the
best events in the beginning of 2009. At the end of the year, Verhagen is
world number 1 again after his victory at the Grand Prix of Austria.
* Carlos Flores remains the world number 1 for many months. 2009 was
another great year for the spanish player who won in Cormons, the Majors of
Mons & Amsterdam, Corbera de Llobregat and Mislata.
* Worlfgang Leitner wins 4 important individual tournaments: the Major of
Mattersburg, the Grand Prix of Germany and the Opens of Traiskirchen and
Rain.
* Zach Walker wins the 2nd edition of the "America Cup" and confirms he's
stil the top american player for the moment.
* Clifford Graaff wins the very first edition of the Afcon Cup, the largest
tournament ever held in Africa.
* Asia is developping as the very first tournament in Japan is held in
January in Yokohama and Singapore has a growing number of players. Yusni
Den Mulia wins 3 FISTF Satellites while the Singapore Challenger in
november has an australian winner: Robert Smith! Also, India becomes full
FISTF member!
* South America knows some positive developments: bigger tournaments in
Argentina, a new association in Brazil and even a small group of players in
Peru.
* The Open of Napoli (Italy) attracts 165 players in october and world
champion Daniele Bertelli wins the open title.
* Legends never die: after a long break, Giancarlo Giulianini wins the
Satellite of Casale Monferrato ins eptember!
* Greece has growing numbers of players and tournaments. Marcos Kapsambelis
wins 2 Satellites where the level is very high.
* Madrid (Spain) is holding 2 Satellites in December. The level is very
high and the winners are Sergio Ramos from Portugal and Giuseppe Guzzetta
from Italy.
* "Young" countries in Europe are improving their activity: Cyprus had many
tournaments last season, Finland has growing numbers, Gibraltar is back on
the FISTF map, Switzerland has launched a national league and Malta has a
new Board that manages to attract many old players back to the game. Well
done to these countries.

2. Which future for the FISTF Board?
On January 23 & 24, the future of FISTF will be discussed at the
Extraordinary Congress of Frankfurt, in Germany. Seven nations (Italy,
Malta, Greece, Spain, France, Wales & Scotland) have asked this meeting as
according to the statutes of FISTF to discuss the vision of the countries
for the next four year. Elections might even take place even if nothing is
decided yet. This meeting will be a very important one and the current
Board members will have to decide wheter or not they wish to continue to
work for FISTF. It will then be up to the nations to decide who should be
in the next FISTF Board...

3. Your opinion counts
In the next issue of FISTF, I will publish the answers to the next short
survey. Could you please tell me:
- the most important facts you remember of the sports season?
- the most important facts you remember off the pitch?
- who is according to you the player of the year?
- what is according to you the team of the year?
- what was the best tournament of the year?
Thanks for your contribution.

4. Satellites in Bergkamen
There will be 2 FISTF Satellites in Bergkamen, Germany on March 20 & 21.
Interested players should contact Thossa Büsing at busing@fistf.info

5. Valletta Subbuteo Club Website
The website is again updated with the section on the interviews, now we
talked to the ex-World U19 Champion Roderick Sciberras and he responded to
our questions. Take a look at http://vallettasubbuteoclub.webs.com/