Talk:Table football

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Skill shots[edit]

we still need...

better description of skill shots

Matthewmayer 00:35, 21 Dec 2003 (UTC)

would someone explaine the "special" moves like the snake in more detail

At least in Sweden[edit]

At least in Sweden, there exists a variant of Table Football, that is more similar to Table Hockey: http://www.stigagames.com/Product_guide2.asp?Guide_id=4&Country_id=1&Group_id=3 (I believe Stiga's version is the most famous and popular example.)

This title of this article[edit]

This title of this article seems to be an obscure brandname unheard-of outside of America. I'm moving it to the more sensible "table football". — Chameleon 13:04, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Much as I personally prefer the name 'table football', it's worth noting that the term 'foosball' is not used only in the States, the national association in the UK changed its name a couple of years ago to the British Foosball Association, for example. Matthewmayer 13:53, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

A good point. But, although I don't know why they changed their name, it was definitely not because that is what ordinary people call it that, or because the name makes sense. Perhaps they have just been watching too much Friends. — Chameleon 14:06, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Part of the reason may have been that they wanted to keep their abbreviated name of BFA (they were previously known as the Bar Football Association). Matthewmayer 9 July 2005 12:51 (UTC)

The BFA were formerly called the Bar Football Association, and were renamed due to the phrase "Bar Football" having been deemed to have fallen out of favour with the British public since the heyday of the 1970s. It was decided at the 2003 AGM (sadly the minutes are long gone so I'm afraid you'll just have to trust me - I was there) that, from a choice of about 5 or 6, the British Table Football Association was the most suitable name but, largely due to a lack of funding, we would choose the British Foosball Association so that all our t-shirts and promotional material would not need reprinting with the new BTFA abbreviated name. robmoss2k 24 Jan 2007 14:56 (UTC)

OK, it's definitely not table football. It's foosball, and it's universal (almost, except for the babyfoot guys, but umm... that's not foosball). So this needs to go back to foosball. Does anyone else on here that actually knows foosball object to that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.227.155.223 (talk) 00:30, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

It should stay at Table Football. In Australia we called it "Table Soccer", but I had never, EVER heard of the term "Foosball" for it until I moved to the United States - "Foosball" is NOT universal.70.189.213.149 (talk) 19:42, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

I have played this game in the U.S. and on continental Europe. The only English name I ever heard was "foosball." I never heard of "table football" until I got re-directed to this article while looking for foosball. Nevertheless, I am not arguing for or against one version or the other (I'm just countering the above comment). People heavily involved in the game and who know about its use around the world should wiegh in and decide. Kdammers (talk) 02:35, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

It ought to be returned to the title of Foosball as when one looks at the titles of the professional associations Foosball is a much more prominent name for the game. It would be acceptable to make the title as Foosball/Table Football as well. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alainvirgin (talk • contribs) 11:15, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

It ought to be returned to the title of foosball. For example the Google Ngram for the worldwide English corpus shows that in books the phrase foosball is used four to five times as often as the phrase table football. International English does not mean British English. "Foosball" strikes even Americans as a funny sounding word, but that is in fact what the game is overwhelmingly called.64.179.180.254 (talk) 17:16, 20 November 2013 (UTC) Robb Campbell

The problem with International English is that nobody speaks it. In American English, it's normally "foosball", and in British English, it's normally "table football". Non-English speaking countries tend to call it "table football" if they need to give it an English name. Check the Ngrams if you like. I've played the game all over the world for the past 13 years, in around 30 different countries, and there is no universally accepted nomenclature. Baby-foot, Tischfußball, table soccer, kicker, csocsó, futbolin, bordfodbold, tafelvoetbal, Zhuō shàng zúqiú, stolní fotbal, pebolim... the only thing that I can hang my hat on is that in most non-English speaking countries, the literal translation of the word into English is "table football". Robmoss2k (talk) 12:16, 23 September 2015 (UTC)

Omoneapethic[edit]

"omoneapethic"? there's no such word, and I can't figure out what was meant by that.

It's a most hilarious manner of butchering 'onomatopoeia'==>onomatopoeiac(?)===>(insert illiteracy)===>'omoneapethic'.

Ohmanhowpathetic... 惑乱分からん 19:49, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Toronto-gettone[edit]

In the article it mentioned that jitz is frequently called gettone in Toronto while mentioned that its done by the french population (which are a minority in Toronto). The sentence serves no purpose, it would be better to say that in Canada, fooseball can be alternatively called jitz (English) or gettone (French) with no mention of Toronto.

O__O I can't even see the word gettone in this article anymore. What happened to it? I think it deserves mention, at least under the 'Canada' section. I don't know about other parts of Canada, but teens in Toronto usually call the game jitz, not foosball. (But of course, in catalogues and other things of that nature, it's referred to as foosball or table soccer) I'd add it myself but I was just wondering if there was a specific reason as to why it got deleted altogether.Ham let 20:08, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Table[edit]

was the deletion of the table about what it is called in different parts of the world needed? i found it quite interesting. Finbar Canavan 23:50, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Table football in the Spanish wikipedia[edit]

In the Spanish wikipedia it is strongly stated that table football is a Spanish invention by Alejandro Finisterre. In the discussion page they are asking for there to follow more this English version, in it that the inventor is unknown and disputed. But it is true that in Spain there is a strong popular belief that the table football is a Spanish invention. Should this claim be included in this article, and it's corresponding answer? --Francisco Valverde 02:41, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Spaniards are always claiming they invented things (stick candy,mop etc.) ... the fact is that the patent is not by a Spaniard. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.38.137.53 (talk) 15:08, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Spain invented the Futbolín (a variation of Table Football), but not Table Football, and also invented the Chupa Chups (Spanish Lollypop), but not the stick candy. And about the mop, there was a Spanish patent, but it was previously invented. --Apolo13 (talk) 02:07, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

External Links[edit]

I undid the mass delete of external links and want to explain why. Perhaps there are too many external links. I happen to like them, but I can see how other people may not. However, I have an issue when someone comes in and mass deletes all the external links except one that points to a commercial website selling a product. On top of that, the link is mentioned three times on the page, which I have since trimmed down to the one most appropriate one. Why would a link be left to a website selling something, but all the links to valuable foosball associations and groups be deleted?

If someone wants to be a little more discriminating in trimming down the external links, I don't think I'd have such an issue with it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.250.178.30 (talk • contribs) 09:20, 3 March 2007‎

At least the first link (tablesoccerfriends.com) seems inappropriate. I think they even stopped developing it, as I was unable to find the app in the Google Play Store. There are way better examples for tournament software out there, that are ready and widely used. (kickertool.com, netfoos.com) Arueris (talk) 11:12, 28 May 2016 (UTC)

Relevence to the dot-com boom?[edit]

I could be mistaken here, but I've always understood Foosball to be a "sport" commonly associated with the Dot-Com boom, and even companies like Google today. Y'know... dot-com companies bringing in so much money that there are foosball sets in the lobbies? Am I totally off base here?

Either way, should we mention this in the article somewhere?

Sammysunset 22:42, 9 April 2007 (UTC) 22:41, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

I saw it around plenty in the 1970s or 1980s. 68.46.184.173 12:27, 12 September 2007 (UTC)ALB

Television references[edit]

I removed a number of references which were of the form 'show X showed a table in the corner' or some other minor appearance. I left in refs that seemed to be the focus of the show or episode, but most need citations. --Chuck Sirloin 13:24, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Layout[edit]

The picture doesn't have the same layout as described in the text. Why? 202.180.72.232 09:09, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Arrangement of foosmen[edit]

The arrangement of the foosball might be standard in each country, but it is not universal. In Brazil, for example, the row of defenders, after the one goalie, has 3 foosmen. I think it should be mentioned in the article that the layout is very much varied from country to country. Goldencako 22:23, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

This is absolutely true. In Brazil for example each player controls 11 men, with a 1-3-4-3 (Goalie-Defense-Midfield-Attack) formation. While some tables, especially the one's in the United States the player controls more than 11 men (for example the table that has 3 goalies). Tufts 20:18, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

And in Spain there are three different arrangements. You can see that on the spanish wikipedia. This one are the american one: 1-2-5-3, the traditional spanish 1-3-3-4, and the Valencia arrangement 1-2-3-5. Infapi00 (talk) 16:53, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Italian name[edit]

I saw the "doubtful" tag near the term biliardino. I'm Italian. In spoken language, "biliardino" often refers to Table Soccer, especially in southern Italy. Looking at the dictionary I see that "biliardino" is recognized as an improper synonimous of "calcio-balilla". Accourding to me there is no reason to doubt about "biliardino" term. i am laura and i am the best! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.106.113.128 (talk) 07:14, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Another italian here. If needed, I confirm that "biliardino" is indeed sometimes used to describe foosball.--ZeframCochrane (talk) 18:42, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Foosmen?[edit]

Are those little figures actually called "foosmen"? The term pops up several times in the article, but doesn't cite its origins or whether the term is official. Out of curiosity, is it possible to have "fooswomen" or even gender-neutral "foospersons"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dwr12 (talk • contribs) 22:41, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
I seriously wonder about this term also.Centrepull (talk)

Names: Canada[edit]

I'm Italian. The word "gitoni" doesn't exist in italian. Maybe it's a dialectal form. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.28.219.128 (talk) 14:13, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

I agree. I am italian and "gitoni" does not exist as an italian word. --Gspinoza (talk) 22:16, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Also in Ethiopia is called gitonì. I think that it could be derived from "gettoni" the italian name for the coins used to play it. --213.55.76.19 (talk) 17:24, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

Names[edit]

The article contained a list of names for this game in a variety of languages. This kind of list belongs in dictionaries, not in a encyclopedia. See Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a dictionary. I have moved the list to this talk page for now, in case someone wanted to use it in a dictionary project.

Region	Name
Arab countries	widely known as كرة قدم (Korah Fatel) in Arabic, which means "rolling football." It is also called بيبي فوت (baby-foot) in some Arabic regions, including Palestine and Jordan.
Argentina	metegol
Australia	Foosball or Table football
Austria	Wuzler (also spelled Wuzzler), playing table football is called wuzeln
Belgium	Tafelvoetbal/Kicker (after the brand of foosball tables)
Bolivia	Futbolín
Brazil	Pebolim or totó
Bulgaria	Футбол на маса ("table football"), also джаги
Canada	usually foosball, but often referred to as jitz which initiated from the Italian word "gitoni" which means foosball or table soccer. People called it gitz for short and spelled it "jitz" for elegance. In the province of Quebec, it is known as baby-foot.
Chile	Taca-Taca
China	桌上足球 (table football)
Costa Rica	Futbolín
Croatia	Stolni nogomet
Czech Republic	fotbálek, regionally (mostly in Moravia) also kalčo (from "kalit" a slang for "to play")
Denmark	Bordfodbold (lit. "table football")
Estonia	Lauajalgpall
France	Baby-foot or Babyfoot
Germany	Table football is commonly known as Tischfußball, Tischkicker, Kicker or Krökeln in German.^[1]
Greece	Ποδοσφαιράκι ("Small footbal")
Guatemala	futío
Hungary	Csocsó
Iceland	Fótboltaspil
India	Fusball
Iran	فوتبال دستی (handheld football)
Ireland	Foosball or Table football
Israel	כדורגל שולחן (table football)
Italy	calcio balilla, bigliardino or biliardino (from "biglia", little ball) or even calcetto (less frequent, since "calcetto" is commonly used to indicate Five-a-side football), and in particular areas fubalino
Japan	テーブル・フットボール, loanword, pronounced teburu futtoboru
Latvia	Galda futbols
Lithuania	Stalo futbolas
Malta	Ċomba
México	futbolito
Netherlands	Tafelvoetbal
Other Spanish-speaking countries	In some other Spanish-speaking countries the terms fútbol de mesa or futbolito are used, although the latter might also refer to football played on a smaller field.
Pakistan	widely known as پٹّی (patti) in Urdu, which means "pitch or strip"
Peru	fulbito de mesa or futbolín
Poland	piłkarzyki, which roughly translated means "small football players"
Portugal	Matraquilhos or matrecos
Romania	Fusbal or Fotbal de masa
Russia	кикер or настольный футбол
Serbia	Stoni fudbal
Slovenia	Ročni nogomet
Slovakia	Kalčeto
South Africa	Tata box/Ma tata/Foosball
Spain, Colombia and Costa Rica	futbolín (In Spanish autonomy of Galicia, where is spoken a language linked with Portuguese, it's also called matraquiños and ferriños)
Switzerland	Töggelichaschte
Taiwan	手足球(桌上足球)
Thailand	ฟุตบอลโต๊ะ (table football)
Turkey	Langırt
United Kingdom	table football
United States	foosball
Uruguay	futbolito
Venezuela	Futbolín
Zimbabwe	Slug

^ BFA - Table Football

82.139.83.203 (talk) 00:33, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

My edit was reverted. According to WP:BRD, we should now discuss the issue. I feel this list does not belong in an encyclopedia, as it is merely a list of translations. 82.139.83.203 (talk) 00:32, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Unless arguments for keeping the list are given, I will be removing it one week from now. A list of translations of its title does not belong in a wikipedia article. 82.139.83.203 (talk) 15:40, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

I agree, only the English name should be listed unless there is a specific reason to list the name in a different language as well. --SmilingBoy (talk) 10:20, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

One week has passed and no arguments for keeping the list have been given. I will be removing it. 82.139.83.238 (talk) 10:16, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Once again the list of names in different countries is starting to grow. I'm deleting the non-english names. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.139.81.67 (talk) 01:17, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

"The Dave" - Fake?[edit]

I just googled "The Dave" which is listed in the article as "When a player attempts to shoot up the table, but instead shoots the ball backwards into his own net". The first result is this article and the next 9 have to do with someone called Dave, not a foosball move of that name. Just in case it's a culture-specific thing, I also searched for it with "table football" instead of "foosball". I still couldn't find any results, so I'm removing mention of "The Dave". My best guess is that someone added it as a joke about someone named Dave being bad at foosball. --67.161.217.157 (talk) 16:54, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Various Issues[edit]

Redundant material about the numbers of possible players.
The 'ball control' illustration actually shows nothing of the sort, it shows the well-known situation where the ball is trapped beneath the 'man's' 'foot', in such a way that the player is unable to play the ball.

NB This demonstrates a lack of knowledge of the game. The ball is deliberately trapped under the player figure's foot in order to control it. A moderately skilled player can - of course - still play the ball. JonathanMayUK (talk) 21:59, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

The 'arrangement is standard' paragraph is followed by an assortment of standards.
I'd like to know where the term 'foos men' is popularly used: Germany? US? Definitely not in the UK.
What is the significance of the Fireball table that it merits a separate mention? It being made in China doesn't seem a notable point.
Opinions?
Centrepull (talk) 16:12, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm in the US and I've never heard the term "foos men" before. --98.202.20.190 (talk) 02:36, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

In Birmingham, England in the 1970's and 80's everyone I knew called it Bar Football. I'd never heard the term Foosball until I saw an episode of Friends and Chandler and Joey were playing. Table Football seems a reasonable enough term to use. That's my 2 pennyworth. JSL595 (talk) 20:03, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

I think we called it table soccer. The term "foosball" predates Friends, but it does sound American.

Varlaam (talk) 22:30, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

National associations list[edit]

Rather than restricting people from adding more associations, why not create a separate page for that alone? Then people can go crazy there, and it would remove tedious clutter from this page.
Varlaam (talk) 22:32, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

Ball Materials[edit]

Not sure about marble or metal balls - highly dubious. Can anyone confirm either way? I've never seen either and have been playing a long time.JonathanMayUK (talk) 10:38, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

Table types[edit]

Currently, different table types are mentioned, followed by the consequences of the differences with some examples (but not explicitly linked to the types mentioned before). Wouldn't it be more informative if, with each mention of a table type, the characteristics of that table are explained? Now I still have no clue about the different types, other then the mere fact that there are different types and how they're called. In my opinion, after reading that section I should be able to walk into a pub, look at a table and say "that's a table of type X, because it has this and that characteristic". Jfresen (talk) 13:38, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Casual play[edit]

Kids play it

This article seems to be focused on serious players. I wonder if it would be appropriate to include a bit more casual play, such as the fact that kids play it, or that you'll sometimes find coin-op games in casual restaurants? WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:19, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

[BritFoos-1] BFA - Table Football

[1]