By Baseball Softball UK, www.baseballsoftballuk.com
The British Baseball Federation, British Softball Federation and BaseballSoftballUK have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which gives BSUK the right to represent their Olympic-format national team programmes to funding agencies and others up to the commencement of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
One key purpose of the MOU is to unlock potential funding for the GB Senior Baseball Team and the GB Women’s Fastpitch Softball Team through agencies such as UK Sport and the British Olympic Association, which will only deal with one representative for the Olympic sport officially known as “baseball/softball”.
Such funding, if achieved, will provide key support for the efforts of both national teams to qualify for the Tokyo Games.
The MOU will allow the appointment of a representative for the sports to sit on the BOA’s National Olympic Committee for as long as baseball/softball remains on the Olympic programme.
The Memorandum of Understanding does not apply to any other GB Baseball or GB Softball national teams, or to the Olympic-format teams in a non-Olympic context.
Underpinning BSUK’s representation of the senior national teams will be a Working Group made up of one representative from the BBF, BSF and BSUK. These appointments will be made in the near future.