Footballtennis

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Footballtennis match

Footballtennis originated from Czechoslovakia; in both of Czech and Slovak languages it is called nohejbal (in German it is called Fußballtennis, in French it is Tennis-Ballon).

[edit] History

In 1922 the members of soccer club Slavia Prague, started playing game which they called soccer over the rope, because it was played over the rope at the first time, which later was substituted by net. This new game had similar rules as volleyball, but players played with feet instead of hands and in arbitrary number of players, usually 2 or 3 on each side.

In 1936 the first official footballtennis rules were written. First footballtennis cup was played in 1940. Up to 1962 footballtennis was considered recreation sport. In this year the Czech footballtennis league was founded, but only in Prague. In 1971 "Český nohejbalový svaz" (Czech footballtennis association) was founded. In officially form world detected footballtennis. In 1987 International Footballtennis Association (IFTA - Now called Federation International Footballtennis Association FIFTA) was founded. European championships were held since 1993, world championships since 1996. Footballtennis is popular in Czech Republic and Slovakia of course, but also in France, Hungary, Brasil, Switzerland, Austria, Romania and Croatia, as you can deduce from the list of FIFTA members.