World Table Hockey Association
Established in 1992 in Sweden, the (WTHA) World Table Hockey Association is an international, non-profit and non-governmental organization. Sweden, Poland and Czechoslovakia are the establishing members of the WTHA. Since August 2006, the WTHA has had its seat in Prague and is registered as per the Czech law system. The main duty of the organization is to organize and lead international table hockey competitions with special focus on Billiard-Hockey including players of every category.
The WTHA is also popular for organizing world or European championship in billiard-hockey as well as other tournaments in the game. It is also open for multiple other table hockey disciplines, including air hockey, red hockey games, etc, and competitions in these games. The WTHA consists of 20 member countries. The WTHA organizes various events in different countries.
United States Table Hockey Association
The United States Table Hockey Association (USTHA) is an organization which consists of table hockey enthusiasts who live in the United States of America (USA). The goal of this association is the advancement of table hockey all across the country and the world.
The USTHA encourages and promotes regional tournaments, local leagues and along with this, it also maintains a ranking system on the national system. It seeks sponsorships which helps in increasing the player base. The organization also facilitates air hockey to reach a greater number of audiences in the US.
One of the focuses of the organization is to grow the sport of table hockey at the grass root level by making it available to young people. It also gives them the opportunity to play STIGA table hockey at the competitive level which encourages them to learn and also appreciate the history of the sport. Candidates also get to learn about the games that were played in the past and present by long standing leagues all over the country. The leagues that use and promote games other than STIGA are allocated space on the website of USTHA, so that they can easily promote their statistics and activities.
The USTHA is of the opinion that, currently, the future of competitive U.S. table hockey lies in the ability to promote STIGA table hockey among all the players including novice and elite.