The first congress of the World Baseball Softball Confederation was held last weekend in Hammamet, Tunisia. It was a successful first gathering between baseball and softball federations in the north of Africa. The main item on the agenda was the elections for the executive board. It was elected for a term of seven years decided to give the WBSC the necessary stability in the coming period. Starting from 2021 the term will be four years.
Following the withdrawal of former ISF President and interim WBSC Co-President Don Porter (USA) as candidate on the eve of the congress, Riccardo Fraccari (Italy) was elected unopposed as first WBSC President. IOC members Meliton Sanchez (Panama) and Reynaldo Gonzalez (Cuba) were given the positions of Vice Presidents Baseball and Softball, which have advisory roles on the board. Executive Vice President for Baseball and Softball will be Israel Roldan (Puerto Rico) and Dale McMann (Canada).
Other positions on the executive board will be Low Beng Choo (Malaysia) as Secretary General, Angelo Vicini (San Marino) as treasurer, Paul Seiler (USA) and Ron Finlay (Australia) as members of large for baseball as well as Tommy Velasquez (Puerto Rico) and Taeko Utsugi (Japan) as members of large for softball. Maria Soto (Venezuela) sits on the board as athlete representative softball. A baseball athlete representative will be appointed at the end of the year.