Five Australians will compete at the Federation of International Sports Table Football (FISTF) World Cup in Gibraltar from September 1-2.

The sport is known as Sports Table Football and based on the legendary table top game of Subbuteo, with more than 250 players across six categories to compete in Gibraltar.

Australia has participated at each World Cup since 2013, but this is the first event since 1994 where they will also take part in the national teams’ event.

“It’s a huge privilege for us to represent Australia at this prestigious event,” said Australian Table Football Association President Adrian Connolly.

“We have a great history of the game in Australia, and we were founding members of the international federation.

“We have been building our clubs, player numbers and quality around Australia, and we’re looking forward to having one of our players qualify out of their group for the first time since 1990.”

The five players all come from different clubs with Fabrizio Coco (Sydney TFC) and Paul Mercer (Northern Phoenix TFC) taking part in the Open category, Robert Green (Northern Falcons TFC) and Hugh Best (Subbuteo Perth) in the Veterans category, and Benji Batten (Melbourne TFC) in the U19 event.

Australia hosted the fourth Asian Cup in Melbourne in January, competing against players from around the Asian zone, and has built a good reputation on the international scene.

“Now it’s time for us to test our mettle against the best in the world,” Connolly said.

Favourites for the event are expected to come from Italy, Spain, Belgium and France.