by Pim van Nes
A thunder strike at clear sky is the recent CEB decision to start Euro League, according to Italian website Baseballitalia.it after having checked with Riccardo Fraccari.
The 59-year-old not only is president of the Italian Baseball and Softball Federation (FIBS), but also vice-president of the Confederation of European Baseball (CEB) in charge with technical affairs. This week Fraccari told Dario Pelizzari of Baseballitalia.it, that he did not know anything about Euro League.
In the article Fraccari says that the German president of the CEB Martin Miller arranged for the Euro League green light only in a one man show, neglecting all other members of the European governing body and launching a project. According to Fraccari nobody within CEB ever investigated the possibilities to proceed in this direction and only one person pushed the idea ahead for his own interest: Martin Miller. The article continues stating that Miller does not speak for the organization he represents or should represent.
Meanwhile Mister Baseball asked clarification on the subject in a message to Netherlands Federation President Ruud van Zetten and CEB president Miller. Van Zetten responded with copy to CEB presidency on Wednesday with the following statement of facts about the road to the recent CEB newsletter:
If you read the memo of Martin Miller well, then you can read that after 2010 the time is ready to announce the pro league, as many CEB countries already suggested or know about it. Of course Italy is one of the most important deliverers of professional clubs for this competition. I reported about these plans to Italy for the first time in May 2007 (written, email) and earlier during the CEB congress of 2007 (during the “corridor meetings” and official). For the second time it was discussed with Italy at the IBAF congress in Frankfurt 2007. In all the months behind us there was no “sign” that Italy would be against it (or words like that). So Eenhoorn went on with the plans and the marketing for it.
It is ready and we are ready to go now. To make baseball more shown in Europe, with the best players we can get during a very strong European club tournament.
In response to the discussions around the Baseballitalia.it article and the CEB newsletter, Mister-Baseball.com asked FIBS communication manager Riccardo Schiroli for his comment on the topic.
Riccardo Schiroli:
- 1) Martin Miller’s Newsletter made quite a lot of noise here in Italy, since it gave the impression CEB had already decided that the European League was going to happen in 2010. In that regard, Fraccari said to the baseballitalia.it reporter: “I do not know what you are talking about”, meaning that as CEB Vice President he had no clue that a decision had been made. And in fact, Miller confirmed to me no decision had not been made but that he wanted people to discuss this project all over Europe. From what I see, he definitely succeeded.
- 2) It is not, and it never will be, Euro League vs. Italian League. Simply because the Euro League does not exist yet and the Italian League has been running for 60 years now. And hopefully IBL will keep running, even if the project is not supported by new investors (MLB or others Fraccari and our Board of Directors are talking to).
- 3) It is no mystery that Robert Eenhoorn has presented a project to MLB. It is a mystery though why he sees it in competition with a pro Italian League.
- 4) Italy wants to cooperate for the sake of European baseball. If Italy was really willing to oppose the European League project could easily make it evaporate simply stating that Italian teams won’t be part of it. It is well known that Italian teams would be a factor in this tournament.
- 5) There is also the problem with the weather in Europe at this time of the year. Looking outside the window: here in Parma it’s windy, humid, twelve degrees: typical fall weather, much more fit for red wine and roasted chestnuts than it is to baseball.
- 6) To me the right way to support baseball in Europe would be trying to add value to the European Championship for Clubs and have CEB commit to investing in player’s development. I am very much of the idea that what Europe really needs is an instructional fall league played in the South of the Continent (Sicily, Greece, Canary Islands) or the Middle East for top prospects aged 19-21.
