The European Softball Federation (ESF) announced that they have postponed the Men’s and Women’s Softball European Championships to 2021. The decision was made after the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) adjusted the international calendar, meaning both events don’t need to be played this year to find participants for next year’s World Cups. Meanwhile the U15 Women’s Softball European Championship is still a go. A final decision will be made on June 15.
Full release by ESF:
As we have seen today, the WBSC Calendar changed due to the pandemic situation throughout the world.
The Olympic Games were postponed to 2021 and consequently the World Games to 2022. Besides, the Men’s World Cup has been postponed to 2022, the Women’s World Cup to 2023 and U15 Women’s World Cup are cancelled.Thus there is no rush to play Qualifiers for these events in 2020 and ESF wanted to find a fair solution for everyone, also taking into account the pandemic and the various situations in the European countries.
Based on the changes above, ESF decided to postpone both of the adult European Championships to 2021.
- Men’s European Championship will be played in Ledenice, the Czech Republic on June 21 – 26, 2021.
- Women’s European Championship is postponed to 2021 and the exact date will be announced later.
“I believe that this decision will also allow the National Federations enough time to play their local competitions as soon as their countries allow them to start their Leagues.” Softball Europe President Gabriel Waage comments “We are in a unique situation and can only hope that we will be back on track as soon as possible.”
The situation with the U15 Women’s European Championship is different.
As the inaugural U15 Women’s World Cup is scheduled for 2023, the U15 WECh will be the qualifier for this event is as it was originally scheduled in 2022. As there is no rush this year for a qualifying event for the U15’s, there is an interest to keep this year’s event in some form alive to give this generation’s dream of wearing a national jersey for the first time and play internationally. We are in communication with KNBSB and the organizers about potentially postponing this year’s event to a date that will abide by the restrictions of the Dutch government.Because of this unpredictable situation, the June 15 deadline has been set as the final date of confirming this event based on the notification from the KNBSB.