As mentioned in Eliot Kennedy’s recent report, the ATFA Committee has been considering what the calendar of FISTF events in Australia should look like each year.

As a member of FISTF, Australia can hold up to eight FISTF tournaments a year – a Grand Prix (GP), two International Opens (IOs) and five Satellite tournaments. While we have never used our full allocation, the Committee recently agreed that each year we should aim to hold all eight permitted events, with the larger events being held in our current main playing centres (Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane) for the time being and, hopefully, Satellite tournaments being held in other cities.  

We are keen to give both domestic and international players as many opportunities as we can to compete at a higher level if they wish to.  We also hope to increase publicity and to attract new players nationally by staging well run FISTF events in most/all of the cities in which we currently have active players/clubs

Other than in years when Australia hosts an Asian Cup (every six to eight years), the most significant tournaments each year are the Australian GP (AGP) and the two IOs. So that both players and organisers can plan well ahead, the Committee has decided on the following schedule of major events for the next three years (the IOs are not listed in order within each year):

Tournament	2026	2027	2028
Australian Grand Prix	Sydney	Melbourne	Brisbane
International Open	Brisbane	Sydney (TBC)	Melbourne (TBC)
International Open	Melbourne	Brisbane (TBC)	Sydney (TBC)

Until now, the AGP has always been held in Melbourne or Sydney, but we are keen to give other cities the chance to host our premier event, and the Brisbane Subbuteo Club has indicated its willingness to host the event in 2028, as well as an IO in other years.  

We also hope that other cities/clubs will be keen to host the AGP and/or IOs in the future, as well as Satellites. In fact, ATFA will be undertaking an expression of interest process in early 2026 to invite all clubs/cities to consider hosting the 2029 AGP.  More details will be issued closer to the EOI process, but it will conclude by 30 June next year.

The EOI process will also invite all clubs/cities to bid to host an IO in 2027 – the hosts for the IOs in both 2027 and 2028 are only tentatively shown in the table above, and will be changed as appropriate if others are keen to host an event in those years. 

Dates for the AGP and IOs have not yet been set, but we intend to run the AGP in its traditional January/February window each year, and hope that the IOs can be spread out roughly equally across the year.

We will also try to confirm at least some of the five Satellite tournaments to be held in 2026 over the next few months.  In any case, the calendar for 2026 will be published by the end of October 2025, and updated as appropriate, with the aim of finalising dates of the three larger events at least 12 months before.

Players/clubs/groups thinking of organising a FISTF tournament for 2026 and beyond can find the application form by clicking this link or going to the ‘Official Documents’ page of this website.

Eliot Kennedy
ATFA President
on behalf of the ATFA Committee