Greetings from ITFC President
Dear ITFC Family,
Happy New Year to you and Your Families. May the new year bring health, success and lots of sweet memories!
We have closed the year 2025, and we can truly say that it was another fantastic year for the world of table football. We experienced countless beautiful moments together – joy, tears, emotions, hard fights and great victories. These are the moments that make this sport special and worth building together.
We started the year in January 2025 in Óbecse, Serbia, where we organized the European Championship. The event took place at an excellent venue and featured three disciplines: Sectorball, 12-Touch and the debuting Chapas. The level of competition was outstanding and truly worthy of a European Championship.
Throughout the year, many international tournaments were held in Brazil, Spain, the Catalan region, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Hungary. Unfortunately, the planned international event in the United States could not take place due to visa issues, but I am confident this will be resolved soon. There is also a strong chance that Japan will host an international tournament in the near future.
The Confederation’s financial situation remained stable. Several inherited grant projects were successfully closed without any repayment obligations. In addition, through the Hungarian 1% tax support program, we managed to collect a modest but important contribution, which will be used for the organization of the World Championship.
Yes, the World Championship – because 2026 is the year of the World Championship. Based on the decision of last year’s General Assembly, Budapest will host the upcoming X. ITFC World Championship.
From a multimedia perspective, 2025 was an excellent year as well. A large amount of video content, photos, social media posts, and both online and printed media appearances were produced. The European Championship was broadcast live on YouTube – special thanks to the Debrecen crew for their professional work. Brazil raised the bar even higher with an outstanding YouTube broadcast of the Brazilian National Championship. We truly hope to deliver a similar high-quality broadcast for the World Championship. Today, table football matches can even be watched on smart TVs at home.
Unfortunately, we did not make significant progress in sponsorship during 2025, but we are confident that 2026 will be a stronger year in this regard.
In 2025, we voted to make Catalan button football an official discipline in the near future, with only a few administrative steps remaining until October 2026. New member countries are also emerging, with growing interest in table football in the USA, India and several other European countries.
Most importantly, 2025 once again showed how strong and united our community is. We are a true table football family. Differences of opinion exist and will always exist, but we are able to resolve them and move forward together. Thank you for this – without you, none of this would be possible.
I would like to thank everyone for the enormous amount of background work done in each country. There are dedicated people everywhere who act as catalysts and keep the sport alive locally. My role is often just to place the cherry on top of the cake. I would also like to thank your families – and my own – for their understanding and support, as everything we do is based on voluntary work and personal free time. Being part of such a global community is truly inspiring.
The year ahead will be challenging, as we are organizing a World Championship. So far, more than ten countries have already confirmed their participation, including newcomers such as the USA and India – and there may be more surprises to come. I firmly believe that we can organize the biggest ITFC World Championship ever, where every participant will experience the spirit, professionalism and warmth of the ITFC family and start building their own future within our sport.
One of my key goals remains the development of youth competitions in every country and involving more children in table football. Hopefully, by 2029, at the XI. World Championship, we will once again be able to organize Cadet, Junior and Youth World Championships, as was the case before 2009.
Year by year, we are moving closer to our sister organization, FISTF, and I sincerely hope that this cooperation will continue to strengthen throughout 2026.
Let us play through this year together.
Let us move forward on our path, build our community and shape the future of international table football. Let us meet at tournaments, explore cities together and show our shared treasure to the world.
Long live button football, long live table football.
See you soon!
István Mártonfi
President
International Table Football Confederation (ITFC)