Greek Ministry dissolves Greek Baseball and Softball Federations

The Greek Ministry of Sports has dissolved several sports federations in Greece as part of reorganization including the Greek Baseball and Softball Federations. Overall 14 sports has been identified including rugby, field hockey and badminton, which then are supposedly added under supervision of the Hellenic Gymnastics Federation. Most of the 14 federations receive little to no government funding and now fear that they receive even less.

According to Greek law each federation has two months to accept or appeal the decision to dissolve. Most of the federations already have submitted their appeals. The Greek Baseball and Softball Federations are planning a joint appeal. They hope that a possible merger of the separate federations would convince the government to decide against adding baseball and softball to the gymnastics federations.

Baseball and softball in Greece is working on several youth programs and have organized various European tournaments in the past few years without support from the government. The Confederation of European Baseball (CEB) just had awarded another European Cup Qualifier to Athens. Officials of the Greek Baseball and Softball Federations also have asked WBSC, IBAF, ISF, CEB and ESF to send letters of their support to the Greek government, hoping to reverse the decision.