British Foosball Association

How to Play - The Tables

Classes of Foosball Table

Tables differ in terms of cabinet construction, material of playing surface/ball/players, player/rod configuration etc.

• Main classes of table in the UK
• Table dimension chart

For a full review of (virtually) all table types see Frank's Website and click on the Tables menuitem.

Tables can be broadly categorised into country playing styles. The UK does not have a particular style of its own, but rather a number of styles corresponding to the import of tables from a variety of foreign manufacturers.

Italian-Style
	The common pub glasstop is characterised by Red and Blue players, a plastic ball and slippery glass playing surface. The style tends to be fast and free, with an emphasis on fast reactions. Pinning the ball is difficult but not impossible, and pin shots have become very common at tournaments. Manufacturers include Garlando, FAS, FABI, Roberto-Sport and Sardi.
American-Style
	The open top Tornado table, with Yellow and Black players, is firmly established in the US and is also popular with many UK and European pro's. The table was designed as a high-quality cross between styles, and its design greatly facilitates controling and passing the ball, enabling skills to be developed with extremely high levels of precision and consistency. The angle on the feet of the players facilitates pinning the ball without it becomming de rigeur. The style play of is best described as controlled. The primary table is the Tornado, although its success has led to numerous copycat manufacturers including Rosengart and Sivissidis
French-Style
	The metal players, cork balls and linoleum surfaces characteristic of most French tables prohibit accurate passing and tap or drag based shots, but lend themselves to pinning the ball with ease. The style of play can be described as fluid, with the ball being moved freely between players in a pinned position. Although there is no national tournament scene in the UK on French tables, local events held at Cafe Kick and Bar Kick are well attended and have attracted a wide range of top players. Bonzini, René Pierre
Belgian/Dutch-Style
Soccer 2000, Jupiter, Black Diamond, Stakanit, Topper, Royal Star
German-Style
Lowen, Leonhardt, Saarland, Tournament Soccer, Vitalite, KCE, Eurosoccer, Deutscher Meister
Spanish-Style
Futbolin, Segarsa, Val, Bifuca

Compiled by Boris Atha

This chart details the similarities and differences in dimensions between different table types. This is by no means complete, and if any readers have different types of table, or can fill in the missing links, we would like to know.

Some manufacturers produce different models - e.g. Italian tables often come in short and long (goalie rotates 360 degrees) versions.

* Notes:

3-bar spacing - This is the distance between the inner edge of the wing player's toe, and the outer edge of the centre-forward's toe.

Protrusion - On some Italian-style tables the end of the rod is flush with the player figure, on others it protrudes slightly.

Tolerances - Length/width ±0.5cm, other dimensions ±2mm.

Player Figures Italian style players have rectangular toes and are usually of red/blue plastic moulded directly to the rods (telescopic or straight through). Some Italian tables can be supplied with German style players/rods.Tornado style tables have yellow/black plastic 'Alien' stylized counterbalanced players with treaded wedge-shaped feet, pinned to straight-through rods. German style tables have plastic players (red/blue or yellow/white) usually wearing hats, toes are relatively rounded and treaded. French style players are usually metal, painted in team colours, the toes are untreaded, with flat front and rounded back surfaces. Benelux style players are made from painted hardwood, with narrow wedge-shaped toes, no tread but extreme grip. Topper players are rather chunkier and unpainted.Spanish tables have heavy metal players each with two feet.

Formation (No of players on rods) - All tables (including Sivissidis) use the standard 1-2-5-3 formation with banked corners of the playfield, except for: Tornado, and some other US tables have 3 players on the goalie rod (i.e. 3-2-5-3) with a flat playfield. Spanish/Futbolin tables have a very different formation, with 3 in midfield and defence, with 4 attackers (i.e. 1-3-3-4), and the playfield is curved so ball returns to centre of table.

Grip - Based on a subjective comparison, the grippiness of different table types can be expressed in stars, from no stars (slickest) to 5 stars (grippiest) as follows: Italian - depends on surface: Slick glass (no stars), Laminate (*), Sandblasted glass (**), Tornado (***), German (***). French (****), Benelux (*****), Spanish (no stars),