Six of the top eight European Baseball countries met last weekend in Prague, Czech Republic to discuss the future of the sport in Europe, building on their last in Barcelona, Spain this summer. Italy (Riccardo Fraccari, Massimo Fochi), the Netherlands (Ruud van Zetten), Spain (Luis Melero, Xavier Matteu), Sweden (Mats Fransson, Kristian Palvia) and the Czech Republic (Radim Kepák, Lucie Cubíková, Petr Ditrich) were on hand. The federations in Germany and France were excused.
According to a report on the website of the Czech Baseball Association, the main topic among others was the upcoming changes due to the removal of Baseball from the Olympic program. One month before the elections at the IBAF congress in Lausanne, Switzerland, the future of the International Baseball Federation also was discussed. Additionally the two big federations from Italy and the Netherlands, which sometimes seem to have some problems with each other, reached an agreement to cooperate better in the future.
The six federations also filed a working paper with 25 suggestions to improve Baseball internationally, which will be finalized until mid-November. The basic points are:
- Bring IBAF and the MLB together as a professional organization
- Find a way to put the World Baseball Classic in connection with the Baseball World Cup and the BWC Qualifiers
- Increase revenues and reduce costs for the IBAF
- Open negotiations with Softball to bring both sports back to the Olympics
- Management system similar to Basketball
They’re planning to get together again during the CEB congress in Stuttgart, Germany next spring.