M.T.F.S.A.
Malta Table Football Sports Association
Affiliated to the Federaton of Internation Sports of Table Football
Recognised by the Malta Olympic Committee
A BRIEF HISTORY ON TABLE FOOTBALL IN MALTA
Table Football, known throughout the world as `Subbuteo`
was introduced in Malta in 1947 when the game was imported from England by
the English armed forces who were stationed on our island. Malta thus
became the first European country to receive this game. Immediately, the
game proved to be immensely popular and generation after generation of
boys and men started to play this game.
During the fifties, this popularity spread all over Europe and each
country started to organise national leagues with the result that the game
slowly but surely started to develop into a sport. In the early sixties
the European Table Soccer Federation (ETF) was formed by the countries of
central Europe and tournaments started to be held in each country. In
1964, the ETF organised the first Europa Cup in Holland and this
competition was held from then onwards till 1993. Malta had the honour of organizing
this competition - in 1976 and most notably in 1992. The Europa Cup
is regarded as the most prestigious tournament of Table Football as it
was by far the toughest tournament to win.
Malta`s role in this game developed
over the years and in the 50`s, 60`s and mid-70`s, competitions
organised were regarded more as a game than as a sport. In the 70`s
the MTSA was born with national leagues held in
Marsa. Malta also participated in the Subbuteo World Cup of 1974 and 1978. In
between the ETF Europa Cup was held in Malta in 1976. In these years many
players of a high level practiced the sport notably, Alfred Fenech, Jeffrey
Pisani Bencini, the Ellul brothers, Sandro Vukovic, Joe Barbara, Joe
Bartolo and many others. Unfortunately, after 1978, the MTSA ceased to exist
but the game`s popularity remained with various leagues organised
all over the island notably in Rabat, Sliema, Tigne, and other areas. In 1980,
Malta participated in the Subbuteo European Championships through sponsorship
from the local agents of the game.
The breakthrough for the game as a Sport came in 1982 when an 18 year old member
of the committee of the Austin Centre Subbuteo Organisation of Rabat-Mario
Spiteri, decided that the time was ripe to organise a national league
in a central location. Premises were rented in Floriana by the new
committee for this purpose. A new era began.
Never before was this sport taken so seriously and the best players of the island
rallied together in the new association – the Malta Table Soccer Organisation
(MTSO) . From then onwards the national league took place with
various other competitions taking place. The association`s yearly main
events were the National League in the form of 1 st (or Premier), 2 nd
, 3 rd divisions, the Christmas Cup held each December, the Knock-Out (today
k/a Malta Open), and the Challenge Cup. During these years, the
sport really took off with various players of a high level – to name a
few National Champions who shared the titles of the 80`s in
chronological order : Mario Spiteri himself became the new champion
in 1982/3 followed
in the following years by the likes of Adrian Bonnici, Mark Drago (twice), Frankie
Chetcuti (twice) and Patrick Pace (twice). The end of this decade also
brought with it a split in the national association and a new
organisation was formed by members within the same association. Thus the Subbuteo
Association of Malta (SAM) was born in 1989. This situation, while
being unpleasant, did not bring a decline of the game, but it
remained very popular and new Maltese players of a level that was comparable
with the best of the World were taking part not only in the national
leagues of both associations, but also participating in
tournaments abroad.
The years of the `split` also brought to our islands the organisation by the
Malta Table Football Association of the ETF Europa Cup in 1992 under the
expert guidance of the MTFA president of those times, Tony Sapiano. This
edition was considered by many as the best Europa Cup ever from the
organisational point of view. During the same Europa Cup, Malta was rewarded
for its perfect organisation by the election of a Maltese official,
Patrick Pace, as new ETF secretary, a post he held for 2 years.
During the late 80`s and early 90`s Maltese players obtained many important
results like Patrick Xuereb, quarter finalist in the U-16 European
Championships of 1988, Tonio Montesin semi-finalist in the
world`s biggest table football tournament of Paris in 1990, and the peak of
these many important results abroad was reached in the World Cup of 1994,
held in Paris France. This World Cup was very important as it was the
first World Cup organised by a new world federation, the FISTF, which
was formed by the disbanding of the ETF in 1994. The competition was organised
in 4 categories plus the teams competitions. Malta , although regarded
as a country producing good quality players, was not regarded
amongst the favourites, but our country managed to defeat all odds with 2 world
champions – Joseph Borg Bonaci in the U-20 and Darren Scicluna in the
U-16 . This is by far the best result Malta obtained in this sport.
These results served to bring a sense of awareness of the futility of having
2 associations in such a successful sport and so 1995 was spent in ironing
out the differences. Thus in January 1996, the sport of Table
Football was once again represented in Malta by 1 national association, the
Malta Table Football Sports Association. In this year, Malta Champion Joseph
Borg Bonaci reached the final of the senior Subbuteo European Championships
losing narrowly 1-2.
The 90`s thus had produced a new generation of National Champions that were
more than capable of competing with the best of the world. It would be
impossible to name them all but players like Tonio Montesin, Joseph Mifsud,
Patrick Xuereb, Joseph Borg Bonaci, Darren Scicluna, Massimo Cremona
and Derek Conti are just a few of the players which immediately spring
to mind.
In recent times, other important results were obtained by Maltese players, the
most recent being in September 2001 with Samuel Bartolo reaching and losing
the final of the U-15 World Cup, and in 2002, two maltese players reached
the final of the world`s biggest tournament held in Mons, Belgium in
the Under-19 category. For the record, Ilai Zammit Marmara` defeated Josef
Camilleri 1-0 in this all-Maltese final.
The present situation sees the MTFSA organizing the traditional national competitions,
the National Leagues, the Christmas Cup, the `Malta Open`, and the
Challenge Cup. Each year, the Premier League Champion and the Malta
Open winner obtain the right to represent Malta in the World Cup of the
FISTF of which the MTFSA is a full affiliated member. Besides these competitions
, the association also organizes the Clubs/Teams National Leagues in
2 categories, `Open` and U-19. At present the clubs affiliated
with the MTFSA are Hamrun Table Football Club, Valletta Subbuteo Club, and Zabbar
Subbuteo Club. A recent milestone in our history is surely the acceptance
of the MTFSA as a fully recognized member of the Malta Olympic Committee
in 2001. We hope that this will lead to a fruitful relationship that
will enable us to grow further and bring more positive results for Malta
.
Moreover, after the FISTF World Cup of 2001, Malta had been chosen to host the
2003 World Cup. This in fact took place between the 26 th and 28 th September,
2003. To describe the story of the FISTF World Cup 2003 would require
an article by itself but to summurise, the competition took place
at the Cottonera Sports Complex in Birgu , Malta on the 26-27-28 September,
2003 . 136 players from 16 countries took part in 9 categories and
the organisation was considered by all countries as very good
considering that Malta had not organized a major competition since 1992. The
venue was very well accepted and 33 tables in perfect condition ensured
that a level of play was achieved. What made this competition even
more memorable is the fact that Malta obtained 4 medals. 2 gold medals were
obtained by Roderick Sciberras as individual World Under-19 Champion and
the Under-19 team confirmed its good expectations by winning the Under-19
World Cup for teams. Moreover, in the first time ever that Malta
was represented by a female participant in an international competition, Melanie
Fenech reached the semifinal of the World Cup of the individual female
category and obtained a well deserved bronze medal. But the most
amazing result was the draw obtained by Malta `Open` Team category against super-team
Italy crammed with the top players of our sport. The Malta team went
on to reach the semi-final where it had to bow to the superior experience
of the Belgian team. After the World Cup, Malta shot up in the World
Rankings in practically all categories with the Malta team ranked No.3
in the World after Italy and Belgium . Malta Champion Joseph Mifsud ranked
no.65 while Hansel Mallia ranked no.79 in the `open` rankings.
Roderick Sciberras from nowhere was ranked No.5 in the Under-19 rankings and
Melanie Fenech ranked No.19in the female category. Also, the World Champions
Under-19 team ranked No.2 .
This World Cup was organized with great sacrifice by a small team of 5 persons
headed by Patrick Pace and his MTFSA committee consisting of Hansel
Mallia, Joseph Mifsud, Ilai Zammit Marmara` and Roderick Sciberras. However,
a special thanks must go to Hansel, Ilai and Joseph who alongside
Patrick organized the overall organisation of the equipment, venue and hotel
accommodation to the detriment of their personal training as these 3 officials
were also to take part in this World Cup as `Open` individual
and team players.
After the success of the World Cup, the Malta Table Football Sports Association
has the intention to organise an `International Grand Prix` in the
near future, that will enable Maltese players to win world ranking
points in a local competition.
Patrick Pace
Affiliated to the Federaton of Internation Sports of Table Football
Recognised by the Malta Olympic Committee