The Tigers will not play in Almada

 After alot of confusion over the past couple of weeks, regarding whether or not Bologna were going to be allowed to participate in this years edition of the Europa Cup in Almada, Portugal. We finally have had an official correspondence from FISTF in which the FISTF General Secretary, Mario Spiteri said as follows:

The FISTF Board of Directors refers to the official communication dated 24 October 2006 released under the signature of the FISTF President, Mr Vincent Coppenolle.

The FISTF Board of Directors would like to emphasise again that the Official Handbook and practices of FISTF are clear in that decisions on the participation or non-participation of a club in the Europa Cup are the sole prerogative of the FISTF Sports Director, Mr Heinz Eder or, in his absence, the FISTF president, Mr Vincent Coppenolle.

This decision is final.

Therefore any future communication relative to this matter is being interpreted as an attempt to undermine the authority of FISTF and may result in further sanctions.

Mario Spiteri
Secretary General FISTF

Therefore it is now official that Bologna Tigers will not be allowed to participate in this prestigious competition!

Cremona wins the Season Opener

 World Number One, Massimo Cremona, won the first Maltese national ranking tournament held at Zabbar on the 22nd October. In the final, Cremona faced former U19 World Champion, Joseph Borg Bonaci, who he beat only by a golden goal, after the score at full time ended 1-1. The two players had also met in the Group Stage, where Borg Bonaci won 1-0.

In the semi-finals Borg Bonaci beat Atlas player, Samuel Bartolo with a golden goal, while Cremona overcame Roma’s Derek Conti with a 2-0 scoreline.

 The other category winners were Joe Zammit Pavia (Veterans) and Timothy Spiteri (U19).

Robillard makes History

JSC Rochefort’s Arnaud Robillard made history last weekend when he won the first ever FISTF Challenger Competition, a new type of tournament introduced by FISTF whcich does not allow the participation of the world’s top 200 players, therefore giving the chance for weaker players to obtain World Ranking Points. The Frameries Challenger in Belgium gave an answer to all those who criticised this new concept that this idea really is useful as the tournament saw the participation of 51 players.

The tournament enjoyed an exceptionally large number of Junior participants. This is mainly due to the host club, AS Hennuyer, obtaining a premises where they have meetings every two weeks. This brought on alot of local players into the game and the Mons club now has a bright future ahead of it.

Robillard faced his team-mate, Justin Leroy in the final of the Open category. Leroy, still an Under-19 saw off highly-rated players such as Mairesse and De Lieuw to reach the final, where he lost 4-2 to Robillard.

Main Results:

Open 

Quarts de finale
Johnny Beaufays – Anthony Coppenolle 5-0
Arnaud Robillard – David Leroy 6-2
Philippe Mairesse – Justin Leroy 1-2
Olivier Saffer – Pierre De Leeuw 1-1*

Demi-finales
Johnny Beaufays – Arnaud Robillard 2-2*
Justin Leroy – Pierre De Leeuw 3-2

Finale
Arnaud Robillard – Justin Leroy 4-2

U19
Demi-finales
Vincent Rizzo – Julien Dardenne 0*-0
Renald Deloose – Jérémy Ancion 4-1

Finale
Vincent Rizzo – Renald Deloose 0-1

U15
Demi-finales
Océane VanMelkebeke – Jérôme Bertrand 0-3
Kevin Moine – Dany Timmerman 3-1

Finale
Jérôme Bertrand – Kevin Moine 0-1ms

Veterans
Demi-finales

Nico Marks – Pol Verhaeghe 3-2
Patrick Peltier – Marco de Angelis 1-2

Finale
Nico Marks – Marco de Angelis 3-2

Ladies
Demi-finales
Jessica Hardenne – Tracy Dieudonné 2-0
Alysson Moine – Lydie Pinchart 0-4

Finale
Jessica Hardenne – Lydie Pinchart 3-0

U12
Demi-finales
Mervin de Angelis – Mehdi Sedki 3-0
Jérémie Gosset – Bryan De Schuyteneer 2-0

Finale
Mervin de Angelis – Jérémie Gosset 1*-1

Birkirkara Challenger & Satellite for Teams

Everything is set for tomorrow’s FISTF Satellite for Teams in St Martin’s College, Swatar, Birkirkara. This is set to be the first ever Satellite for teams and is likely to feature 3 Pembroke Teams and a St Martin’s Team.

Friday will see the second ever FISTF Challenger being organised at the same venue in the school’s gym. It is expected that around 16 players participate in this event and the categories being organised feature an Open competition, a U19 competition and a U15 Competition.

Most of the participants in this competition are under 16 years of age and this will give them the opportunity to obtain world ranking points as well as have a fun day of subbuteo.

Welcome

Dear all, Welcome to the new version of fromthetouchline, a website dedicated mainly to the sport of table football in Malta, one of the Sport’s Powerhouses. Due to problems regarding the older version we were once again forced to change to a more effective host and we therefore moved to a wordpress.com blog.

The Blog will devote itself more to the Maltese Scene than before, however we will still be reporting on international happenings in the world of Table Football!

 Regards,

The Webmaster