Common Statement of Dutch and Italian Federations

by Riccardo Schiroli-FIBS Communications manager

Dutch Baseball Federation President Ruud Van Zetten wants to say a final word on the reaction the Italian Federation had after an article by dutch writer Pim Van Nes posted on the web site Mister-Baseball.com.

“I want to make it clear that Mr Van Nes has his own opinions, we respect them, but he’s not a spokesman of our Federation” says Van Zetten. “So nobody should take his comments as an official position of the Dutch Federation. We have no intention of commenting the building of a new stadium in Rome – Van Nes should not write about it before consulting right authorities or FIBS – or the fact Italy declined to participate in the Haarlem BaseballWeek this season. We know the reason why – because of the very busy schedule of the Italian competition – the team can’t come to Holland in July”.

Van Zetten wants to put a final word also on the protest the Dutch Federation made on the position of Italian pitcher Giovanni Carrara during the 2007 European Championship in Barcelona: “We had no intention to go against Italy or Mr Carrara, whose right to Italian citizenship we never questioned. But we believed we had to do something, because CEB Technical Commission had stated that the tournament was going to be played according to CEB rules and in our opinion CEB rules were not being respected in the case of a dual citizen who played for another country just two years earlier. Italy believed that the tournament was going to be played according to IBAF rules. A letter sent by IBAF in 2006 confirms that. Nevertheless the international federations CEB and IBAF were not speaking on equal terms. That was our complain in 2007. We didn’t discuss the issue directly with the Italian Federation, before filing our protest, because the whole situation of rules was very confusing”.

The relation between the 2 Federations is alive and kicking, anyway: “We are trying to figure out how to cooperate at every level. As quick as possible we will be trying to restart the European Baseball Series and extend the project to AAA National Teams and to softball Series. Of course, Italy and Holland will try to beat each other on the field. But front offices of the 2 Federations will work together at all levels”.

Italian Federation President Riccardo Fraccari added on a final note: “It’s very good for baseball if Italy and Holland are able to have a direct dialogue and avoid talking to each other through press releases. Italy and Holland will work together and we want to make things happen together, like we did in 2006 with the Euro Baseball Series. At the same time, everybody is aware of the fact that our programs are different and that sometimes we are going to travel on parallel roads”.