World's Largest Foosball Table

World's largest foosball table was built in open air in Berlin, Germany with a playfield having a whopping size of 11 metres x 6 metres (~36.09 x 19.69 feet).

It was installed around December 2005 for the 2006 FIFA World Cup held at Berlin. Present status whether it still exists or has been dismantled is not known. (Update: In all likelihood it has been dismantled. It can be seen in Google Earth images of 12/2005 and 05/2006 but cannot be seen images of subsequent years.)

Foosball also known as Table football or Fussball is a table-top indoor game/sport based on the sport of soccer/football. Invented in 1922-23 it is very popular in many countries around the World and it is generally played for fun in several pubs, bars, workplaces, schools, and clubs.

With rise in its popularity it is now being played at professional level also and has its own governing body called International Table Soccer Federation (ITSF) established in 2002 with the mission of promoting the sport, framing standard rules and regulating international competitions.

The football players are actually figures (called foosmen) mounted on rods and the foosball players control their team by means of sliding and/or turning the rods to kick the ball in opponent's goal.

The game played by two teams can have 2-13 foosmen each depending on the size of the table. Most common is 4 player (2 persons per team) table with 4 rods and 11 foosmen for each team. Typical formation of foosmen, which may differ from table to table, is;

1. Goal keeper rod - 1,
2. Defensive rod - 2 foosmen,
3. Midfield rod - 5 foosmen and
4. Offensive rod - 3 foosmen.

The size of the table also varies from place to place. An average table has a dimension of 148 x 76.5 cm (58.3 x 30.1 inch) with a playfield size of 114.5 x 69.5 cm (45.1 x 27.4 inch).

Here is a typical foosball game in progress;

Image from Picasaweb is by Alvar

Here are few images of the giant sized playfield at Berlin.

Image from Flickr is by Gertrud K.

Image from Flickr is by Julie, Dave & Family

Image from Flickr is by hellodisco!

Image from Flickr is by BlakeRead

Image from Flickr is by Julie, Dave & Family

For those who are not aware of the game, following YouTube explains to some extent how the game is played;

View location in Google Earth  Google Maps

Main source of info: Giant Fussball Table (with some exclusive images) / Wikipedia

Credits: I am thankful to Seer, Member and 'Master Chronicler' of Google Earth Community (GEC) Forum whose above referred post (Giant Fussball Table) brought this to my knowledge. Seer is one of the earliest (probably founder) members of GEC and has made several hundred fantastic posts about various places around the World. The quality of his posts can be gauged by the fact that he has an exclusive section in the forum entitled "The Seer's Best".