I had a great time in Africa but am back in China now. Let me know if you want to come over for photo night. My arm is getting better but not as fast as I had hoped. More therapy and we will see what happens. I will be away for CNY Jan 21-29. Wishing you a nice holiday too. I played some great players and very nice guys in South Africa. Their top player will likely come to visit us in June this year.
Outstanding job to all who have been keeping Shanghai foosball going while I was away and keep up the good work. Thorsten, Stefano, Daniel, Johan, Jojo and others will keep the local scene growing week to week but I thought I would periodically give you some updates on world foosball and on our own upcoming major events. By the way, the weekly organizers are always looking for more volunteers and of course for you to come out to play and to invite new players as well.
WORLD FOOSBALL
The International Table Soccer Federation (ITSF)
World Cup and World Championships just took place. The Belgium and Germany teams claimed top honors on the weekend at the
World Cup of Table Soccer.
Here are the top winners in each event:
Men’s World Cup
Division 1
1 BELGIUM
2 GERMANY
3 USA
Division 2
1 CANADA
2 SLOVENIA
3 ITALY
Women’s World Cup
1 GERMANY
2 FRANCE
3 BELGIUM
Junior World Cup
1 NEDERLAND
2 FRANCE
3 DENMARK
Senior World Cup
1 GERMANY
2 GREAT BRITAIN
3 ITALY
Disabled World Cup
1 GERMANY
2 SPAIN
3 RUSSIA
These events saw numerous intense matches in the most spectacular table soccer event of the year with live broadcast on Eurosport TV. Our friends Dennis Jiang and Tony Spredeman were there. More info at www.table-soccer.org
Fireball replaced Tornado and Leonhart replaced Tecball to join Bonzini, Garlando and Roberto Sport as the five official tables. Asia was represented by Iran, Japan and India. All the Asian teams did well and Iran played particularly well and were leading eventual gold medal winning Team Belgium 4-0 before the Belgians stormed back to win the next five straight and to win the match 5-4. My friends on Team Canada won division 2 so are now promoted to division 1 for next year where things will be much tougher.
I was considering playing for the senior team for Canada but between my injury and my own travel plans I decided to pass for this year.
SHANGHAI MAJOR FOOSBALL EVENTS
We already have 3 sponsors but we need 4 more so please let us know if you would like to participate or know someone or some company that might be interested. The Shanghai Open and Shanghai International Challenge tentatively planned for May and October respectively this year. Time to get playing and practicing!
New location – Eden Club on Hongmei Lu. I will be out tonight, tomorrow and Friday if my arm holds out. I hope to see you soon. Yes, I have put on weight while on holiday. Thanks in advance for mentioning it though. The workouts and better eating starts soon. Ok, maybe AFTER Chinese New Year. Ha ha…
Authors bio is coming up shortly. 
