Press release Confederation of European Baseball
On Monday, August 17, 2020, the Confederation of European Baseball (CEB) granted the hosting rights of the European Baseball Championships 2021 to Italy. The event will take place in September 2021 in the Piemont region.
The tournament will be co-hosted by the cities of Torino, Avigliana and Settimo Torinese and will host 16 national teams in a new championship format. For the first time in over 21 years, Italy will host a European Baseball Championship on the seniors level. The last time Torino hosted a major international event was in 2009, when Stadio Passo Buole was a venue for the Baseball World Cup and hosted two games in front of a sell-out crowd. All venues fulfill the requested standard, while further upgrades of the facilities will be supported by the municipal administrations of the hosting cities.
With the historic expansion of the format, for the first time ever, 16 teams will compete for the title of European Champion. The Executive Board and the Technical Commission for Baseball Europe are finalizing the format for the 16-team-tournament within the next weeks. Also the qualification format for the additional teams, which aren’t qualified yet, will be announced at a later point in time.
– Didier Seminet – Co-President of the World Baseball and Softball Confederation – Europe (WBSC Europe)
“I would like to congratulate Italy for being awarded with the organizing rights of the 2021 European Baseball Championship. I’m delighted to see Italy, one of European Baseball’s pillars, organizing our premiere event for the first time since 1999.
I also would like to emphasize how the organization of the 2021 European Baseball Championship in the Torino region, one of the hardest hit of the continent by the Covid-19, will demonstrate Italy’s capacity to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. I’m very much looking forward to the 36th edition of the European Baseball in Italy !”
– Andrea Marcon – President of the Federazione Italiana Baseball Softball (FIBS)
“This award marks Italy’s come back to the top of our disciplines not only in sport achievements, but also at the organizational level. 2021 will be a year in which our country will be the undisputed center of the European movement, hosting a series of events, the European Softball Championship and the U18 European Baseball Championship above all, that will not only emphasize the enthusiasm of our operators and supporters, but also will turn into the tool to ‘capture’ many others.”