The president of the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) Harvey Schiller updated his blog at IBAF.org this week with a few interesting comments regarding the reinstatement of Baseball and Softball into the Olympics next fall and a few remarks about the process itself:
Quote:
-The IOC Programme Commissione has recently distributed a questionnaire for each of the seven sports being considered for the 2016 program. It is to be completed in early February 2009. It’s clear that the questionnaire prepared by the IBAF in 2005 was incomplete and lacking much of the needed information.-The Programme Commissione will meet sometime in March 2009 to review the inputs from each of the seven sports(baseball, softball, golf, rugby, karate, squash, and roller sports) and then make a recommendation to the IOC Executive Committee of which sports should be added to the 2016 program.
-The IOC Executive Committee will meet in June 2009 with each of the sports and make a final recommendation to the IOC Congress in October in Copenhagen.
-It’s clear that the inputs submitted by the IBAF in 2005 to the Programme commission were incomplete and did not help our cause!
-The meeting of the Programme Commission in March 2009 will not include representatives of the seven sports being considered.
-The IOC Executive Committee will meet prior to the 2009 Congress to consider which two sports will be presented for a vote by the members in Copenhagen.
-IOC President Rogge has indicated that only two sports will be submitted for a vote by the Congress!
-Rumors that one “team” sport and one “individual” sport will be among the two are UNTRUE! Two team sports or individual sports could be recommended.
AN IMPORTANT FACT:
Sports added to the 2016 Olympic Program are not permanent to the program. The IOC will consider which sports are to be added to the 2020 program in 2013! Whichever sports are added to 2016, they will need to reapply for the 2020 program.
In addition he also talked about the pursuit of the International Softball Federation (ISF), which seeks independent national federations separated from Baseball. Schiller disagrees with these plans and hopes to combine both sports to bring them back to the Olympics together.
Quote:
Many of our member federations around the globe have historically been combined baseball and softball federations. Recently, the International Softball Federation directed the softball component of the federation to separate itself and become independent. We have heard numerous concerns from these combined federations regarding this directive. It is my belief that both softball and baseball would best be served by combining entities as a single sport with men’s and women’s disciplines for the 2016 Olympic Program.Why? Combining these sports would allow the most efficient use of venues among the 2016 candidate cities, allow for significant financial returns for those same cities, recognize the efforts of the many youth programs such as Little League and others that support girl’s softball, and offer the Olympic Games itself the opportunity to actually recognize three sports for the 2016 Games.
We will continue our efforts in discussions with the ISF to work in this regard. All of our member federations can contribute through your support of this effort. Did you know that MLB supports Women’s Professional Softball?