Saturday the 27th of November saw the playing of the 6th South African National Table Football Championships proudly hosted by the Joburg Eagles and sponsored by Ola Ice Cream and Just for You Meals.
Randburg AFC hosted the above and the Senior Open proved to be the crème de la crème of the Weekend of Festival Subbuteo.
An immaculately presented hall featuring six tables ranging from a retro Subbuteo field, three impeccably produced local pitches (by Gary Downs of SA Bases) and two Astro pitches greeted the players and created a Subbuteo Hall of Fame.
English President Jason Finch, who especially flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg, was undoubtedly the star attraction. The top ranked South African players from all active clubs were present to partake and enjoy in the fun and festivities which epitomises the local South African Subbuteo tournaments.
A seeded draw pitted the 16 combatants in four groups with the top 2 players qualifying for the Cup event and the bottom two players vying for the Plate Trophy.
Justin, Sean Morgan, Jason Kennedy and Clinton Gahwiler (all the way from Cape Town), topped their respective groups with Angus Begg, Martin Plascott, Ian Clarke and Clifford Graaff were the runners-up.
The quarter finals dished up some scintillating games with Justin easily qualifying for the semis (even with the help of the local Mzanzi Youth Choir who added some musical impetus), Sean, Clinton and Martin accounted for Clifford, Angus and Jason respectively.
The semis saw Justin outclass Martin and Sean defeat Clinton in a titanic struggle.
The final pitted the best local player, Sean Morgan against ‘Flicking Finchy’ from England.
Although local Sean tried his best, the experience and sheer class of Justin reigned supreme and he beat Sean coutersy of three ‘HOLLYWOOD’ goals which left the spectators in awe of the skill level of the new South African Championship winner.
In the Plate section, Gary Downs, accounted for Guiseppe Mantazza in an exciting penalty shootout. As a momento of the SA Championships, all players were presented with a commemmorative
goalkeeper with the SA Champs logo on the handle and a beautifully crafted penant, both made by Gary Downs and sponsored by the Johannesburg Eagles!!!!!
This brought the curtain down on a weekend of exciting, competitive (yet friendly), joking (and some serious) and general good natured banter and the building of new friendships,
fostering of existing ties and more importantly celebrating this great game which has brought so many hours of joy to people all over the world.
Look forward to seeing you all at the next SA Champs in 2022 held by ETS Subbuteo Club.
Justin Finch claims inaugural SA Champs Old School Title
The South African Subbuteo Festival weekend flicked off on Friday evening with the Johannesburg TFC aka ‘The Eagles’, hosting the South African Table Football Associations (SATFA) first ever ‘Old School
Subbuteo National Championships’.
This was the first ever ‘Old School’ Subbuteo Tournament hosted by the Joburg Eagles and the unprecedented success will definitely see more of the latter being introduced at the Joburg Eagles events.
Kevin Mudie, an ex South African professional football player, was the guest speaker and assisted with the seeded draw.
A very competitive field of 16 players were drawn into 4 groups. Unfortunately due to the Corona worries the field could’ve been a lot bigger, however a great evening of ‘Old School’ Subbuteo fun was had on the classic ‘cereal bowl’ bases.
Finch was a most welcome guest, and proved his superior class against the cream of the crop from South Africa.
The top two players from each group qualified for the quarter finals which saw Justin, Sean Morgan, Clinton Gahwiler and Ian Clarke claim good wins to qualify for the semi finals.
The semi finals dished up two very close and competitive games which saw Justin and Ian qualify for the Final by virtue of one goal advantages against Sean and Jason Kennedy.
In the spirit of the ‘Old School’ game, the final was played on a retro Subbuteo pitch to capture the full ambience of the ‘old School’ Subbuteo which we all love.
The first ‘Old School SA Final’ produced a tight game, however the sheer class and experience of Justin proved superior and he claimed a 1 nil victory against Ian Clarke, who must be a contender
for ‘Most Improved Player’ on the local South African circuit.
Results of the Open:
SA Champs
Results of the Subbuteo event
SA Subbuteo
Jason Pisani (MLT/ Master Sanremo) won the International Open Bormla, beating Mark Gauci (MLT/Valletta SC) 3-2 in the final.
They made the final after Pisani beat Jurgen Balzan (MLT/ST Stembert) 2-1 after extra time, while Gauci beat clubmate Mario Camilleri 2-0.
Podium placegetters: Camilleri, Gauci, Pisani, Balzan
On the Sunday, Gauci came back and won the Bormla SC GP, beating Balzan in the final, 3-2 in extra time.
John Zammit and Josef Camilleri were the losing semi finalists this time.
Winner Gauci
Runner-up Balzan
In the GP Team event, Valetta came out on top in the three team event.
With 300 days to go until the FISTF World Cup Roma 2022, we thought it would be an opportune moment to explain qualifying for the tournament.
Unlike normal FISTF Tour events, players can only qualify for the World Cup after being nominated by their national association (MNA) or through the World Ranking.
It’s not a matter of turning up for the weekend and playing.
Selection of Players
For more information on national selection processes, please contact your national association.
Claudio La Torre (ITA/FCD Mortellito Barcellona PG), the World Cup semifinalist from U19 category in 2018, claimed the Rome GP Open event with a 2-1 sudden death win over Spain’s Ángel Valverde (CAP Ciudad de Murcia FM).
In the Veterans Category, Cesare Santanicchia (ITA/ASD SC Salernitana) overcame Periklis Dimopoulos (GRE/CCT Roma) 5-3 in a free-scoring final.
ASD SC Salernitana (ITA) claimed the team event, beating Virtus 4strade SC Rieti (ITA) 2-1 in a hotly contested match.
Françoise Guyot (FRA/Elan SC Champs) won the Women’s final, beating compatriot and clubmate Audrey Herbaut 3-1.
In the U20 event, Gianluigi Camerlingo (ITA/ACT Anacapri) beat his clubmate Matteo Esposito 3-1.
The Rome organisers put tremendous effort into ensuring safety of all players concerning health regulations and are to be applauded.
Additionally, a renewed focus was placed on player adherence to the rules of the game, with referees/players also under the microscope in terms of concentrating on their duties.
Three players were issued with yellow cards for poor behaviour, which will be tracked by the FISTF Disciplinary Council.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, it was great to see more than 120 players attend the tournament.
Full results:
Roma GP Full results
The presentation was live streamed, and featured the specially prepared video.
World Cup Video
The 2022 FISTF season is about to begin.
With great pleasure we have received several FORM 04 and we are drawing up the FISTF calendar.
Now we inform you that it will be possible to make Player Transfers from 1 December 2021 to 31 January 2022.
National transfers will be managed by each MNA who must send the FORM 20 by 01 February 2022.
International transfers must be sent by MNA, via FORM 06 with original signatures, by January 31, 2022, 11.59 pm Paris Time.
Transfers received after the indicated dates or directly from the clubs will be considered void.
Please note it is the responsibility of each MNA to submit the transfer forms.
Players who have not played any team and individual tournaments FISTF can transfer in the first four months of 2022 until April 30 in an ‘Extended Transfer Period‘.
This transfer forms must be received by 24.00 hrs (Paris CET), April 30.
All transfer forms will be acknowledged by FISTF.
The player must not have used the December 1st – January 31st transfer window.
For a transfer in the Extended Transfer Period, FISTF will require a fee of € 50.00.
The transfer will not be considered valid until the fee is received by FISTF Finance.
FISTF is seeking assistance with a comprehensive historical project, to collect, collate and double check results from past events.
We have a lot of content, courtesy of previous dedicated collectors such as Laurent Garnier and Vincent Coppenolle.
Now we want to take things to the next level.
If you are passionate about data, about ensuring we have a complete record of our sport, please contact us.
We are looking for people who have their own collection of content. We just want to know about it, and maybe you can help fill missing gaps in the data.
If you can help, please contact us at president@fistf.com
We will then put you in touch with the coordinator of this project.
Many thanks
FISTF
The latest World Ranking from FISTF has been released today.
Because of disruptions to both the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the FISTF Board has decided to extend the period of points obtained towards the WR:
– Points older that 36 months will be removed;
– Points obtained within the last 36 months of the WR update will have a value of 50%;
– Points obtained within the last 24 months of the WR update will have a value of 100%;
If you do not see your name in the WR, please contact your national association (MNA) first.
You look at the latest World Ranking
The FISTF 2021 sports season has finally re-started, with a view towards the 2022 season.
We have been standing still for too long, obviously not of our doing, so now is the time to play.
The FISTF Board is very happy that it has been receiving numerous requests from MNAs and players about the status of the World Ranking – which is a clear sign there is plenty of attention
It will be updated shortly.
We also remind all MNA to ensure their players and clubs are properly licensed with FISTF – and for all clubs and players to check on their status with their MNA.