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. Organized competition can be traced back to the 1940s and 1950s in Europe. But the professional tours and big money events began when the founding father of modern professional table soccer, Lee Peppard of Seattle, Washington, United States announced a "Quarter Million Dollar Tour" in 1976. Portland Oregon's John Napa went on to win the US championship. Bobby Brown (of green felt billiards), also of Portland, still holds the record for most points scored in a season with 1305. Several organizations and promoters have continued holding large purse professional table soccer events worldwide.
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 2006 – the inaugural ITSF World Cup – Austria, Germany and Belgium took the Gold, Silver and Bronze respectively.
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Famous quotes containing the word competition:
“Mothers seem to be in subtle competition with teachers. There is always an underlying fear that teachers will do a better job than they have done with their child.... But mostly mothers feel that their areas of competence are very much similar to those of the teacher. In fact they feel they know their child better than anyone else and that the teacher doesn’t possess any special field of authority or expertise.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)
“Like many businessmen of genius he learned that free competition was wasteful, monopoly efficient. And so he simply set about achieving that efficient monopoly.”
—Mario Puzo (b. 1920)
“Every sect is a moral check on its neighbour. Competition is as wholesome in religion as in commerce.”
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864)