IBAF.org published over the last few days three articles from Sports Features Communications’ reporter Keir Radnedge, who spoke with IBAF president Harvey Schiller about the chances of Baseball for reinstatement into the Olympics at the IOC congress in Copenhagen next year, the Baseball World Cup in September, the World Baseball Classic in March and the call by the International Softball Federation (ISF) for independent Softball federations and in fact separation from Baseball in Europe. This is the first time that Schiller comments on the latter topic in public.
Quote:
Schiller says: “Many federations have contacted us saying it’s their desire to stay combined and there are probably a lot of reasons – the relationship that pre-existed, the joint use of fields and in many, many cases the economics.”
So what happens next? Schiller says: “Each federation has to do what’s in its own best interest but where it’s worked together I would hope they would stay together.
“A lot of people believe baseball and softball might do well to go into the Olympics together – men’s and women’s – but that’s up to the softball federation to agree or not.”
Many European Baseball and Softball Federations in Europe are concerned about the ISF pursuit and the discussions about the subject could heat up in the upcoming months. The European Softball Federation is collecting reactions from their members and is going to discuss it again next February in Lausanne.
IBAF.org: Star Quality suits Baseball
IBAF.org: Baseball reaches out to the World
IBAF.org: Baseball plays Europe Card
