Why Make Changes to the Tables?
Excerpt from ITSF email to a USA player's question:
Why change to a one-man goalie's table for
international competitions ?
It is part of a process to make sanctioned
tables better and "harmonize" the various types of tables, while keeping
some of their specificities - it is not about having a unique table.
As an international federation, we have to work
in the best interest of all table soccer
players worldwide, most of whom
can not play on the 5 ITSF official tables, simply because those tables
are way too different from what they are used to playing.
So, we work
in close collaboration with all our partner manufacturers in order to ensure
that ITSF sanctioned tables offer the best playing quality/features and
adaptability to all.
Manufacturers provide various prototypes with
new features, so new options can be explored. This is how playing
equipment is further developed in the interest of the game.
Many such changes have been made in the recent
past, as to
the quality and playability of our partners’ tables, and no one would
think now of complaining about these changes, even though there was a lot of
disagreement each time - it is always hard to change habits.
Since your are mentioning voting procedures,
please note that these types of decisions are not made by one person,
and certainly not to "satisfy one's person agenda".
The change to the one-man goalie's table was approved by a vote of
the ITSF Executive Committee over a year ago, at the last World
Championships in Italy, where the new table was available for
testing.
The table was also made available to players at the International
Series event in Las Vegas in March and everyone was invited to
comment on it.
This is all part of a democratic process, to which everyone can take
part.
The ITSF General Assembly, for example, is
an important time for voicing one’s remarks and proposals.
Invitations to the GA are sent to all table
soccer federations every year.
They were also informed that at the General
Assembly this year (during the World Cup in France), there will be elections
for Executive Committee members.
The members of the Executive Committee are elected by the General Assembly
for four years; they may be re-elected.
It is always nice to have new people working in
the Executive Committee and the various ITSF Commissions
http://www.table-soccer.org/itsf/commissions.php , in order to bring new
ideas.
Best regards,
and Merry Christmas
Christine Cabrera
Assistant to the President
International Table Soccer Federation
27 rue Adolphe Moitié
44000 Nantes
FRANCE
Tel : +33 (0) 2 40 47 90 84
Fax : +33 (0) 2 40 20 44 59
e-mail : info@table-soccer.org
website : http://www.table-soccer.org
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 8:17 PM
Subject: It's not right.
>I do not think it right that the ITSF is pressuring
Tornado to eliminate the
> 3-man goalie rod. This is a competitive advantage for the company and it is
> not right that the ITSF should force a manufacture to become less
> competitive to satisfy one persons (Farid's) agenda.
>
> If it is put to vote by all federations then I am ok with this requirement.
> Until then it wrong to force such a change without due-process.
>