ITHF table hockey

Table hockey is a sport played on table hockey games. The International Table Hockey Federation (ITHF) uses only table hockeys made by Stiga. The origin of the sport was the Swedish Championship 1982 in Upplands Väsby. Organized table hockey is played in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, in North America, but table hockey also play some players from South America, Africa, Australia, or Asia.

The World Championship is organized by the ITHF every two years. The Stiga Play Off game is the official game of the Table Hockey World Championship.

Sweden has dominated the table hockey scene from the beginning and a couple of years into the new millennium. Until the Finnish gold in Riga 2005, Sweden had won all Team World Championships, until 2006 only Swedes had won the Open Swedish Masters, and until 2007 all individual world champions were Swedes. But the new generation comes from Finland, Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Latvia, and its current big star is Maxim Borisov from Russia who is the reigning World and European champion. Borisov has been ranked #1 in the world since December 2013.

Since the sport expands quickly in many countries, the table hockey map may have to be redrawn within a couple of years when nations other than the big seven (Sweden, Finland, Russia, Czech Republic, Norway, Latvia and Ukraine) produce new talents.

First table hockeys were made in the 1930s in Sweden and Finland. Naturally there was no plastic, so they were made from sheet metal.

The use of plastic brought an expansion of table hockey. The Swedish company Stiga started to make hockey tables in the late 1950s. Thanks to the enthusiasm of Swedish players, table hockey expanded to the rest of the world.

Big worldwide development arrived in the late 1990s. That led to an idea founding an international federation. ITHF was established during the World Championship 2005 in Riga, Latvia. Now it associates sixteen national federations.

Especially in Sweden, Finland, Russia, Czech Republic, Norway and Latvia, table hockey is quite popular. But it is growing in lots of countries and there are many tournaments played every week.

These are the most important rules. Whole rules.

Centre forwards and left defenders must stay on their own side of the centre red line during a face-off.

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Wikipedia