A Special Congress held by the International Softball Federation (ISF) on 30 October in Houston, Texas has voted with 71% in favour to combine with the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) to establish a new International Federation for softball and baseball, to be called the International Confederation of Softball and Baseball (ICSB).
BSF Administrator Vicky Hall represented the British Softball Federation at the meeting, and BSF Treasurer Mike Jennings was also present. The Congress was attended by 44 ISF member Federations and 14 members of the ISF Board.
The new Confederation will be put forward to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the official International Federation for all disciplines of softball and baseball. A combined International Federation was one of the conditions laid down by the IOC for softball and baseball to make a joint bid for reinstatement to the Olympic Games in 2020 or beyond.
ISF President Don Porter said, “I was pleased with the results and look forward to meeting with the IBAF officials for further discussions and continuing preparations for the IOC presentation in December. There’s going to be a lot of positive things that we can do together for both our sports, not just for the Olympics but in the long term.”
Sporting equals
Any finance raised by the ICSB will be shared 50:50 between baseball and softball and each sport will have an equal number of members on the Interim Board of Directors, with a joint Presidency for the first term of office. A draft Charter for the new organisation, still to be approved by an ISF/IBAF Joint Committee, says:
“It is the purpose and intent of the ISF and the IBAF as the Operating Entities forming the ICSB, and it shall be a requirement of this Charter, that softball and baseball shall be considered and treated as of equal importance and … [revenues shall be] allocated from ICSB on an equal basis for all purposes, including but not limited to operating budgets for their offices and employees, conduct of Olympic and ICSB Competitions, and development of their respective sports worldwide.”
However, below the level of the ICSB, the current ISF and IBAF organisations will remain as the operating entities for each sport, establishing rules of play, organising competitions and running separate operating budgets as they do now.
National baseball and softball federations, whether separate or combined, can also operate as they do at present.
Officials from the ISF and IBAF will meet shortly to work out the details of how the new Confederation will operate and to notify the IOC of the action taken.
Joint bid
A joint Olympic bid for women's fastpitch and men's baseball will be presented to the IOC in December 2012. The baseball/softball bid will be competing with six other sports for one Olympic place in the 2020 Games.
Olympic sports for 2020 will be decided in May 2013 and taken forward to an IOC Congress in September 2013 for ratification.
However, another condition reportedly laid down by the IOC is that baseball players from the world's top professional leagues must be able to take part in Olympic competition.
Several Asian professional baseball leagues have committed to making their players available in order to support the bid, and an initial meeting with Major League Baseball in October was positive. MLB owners will meet in November to discuss how they can support the bid and the ICSB.
With the realisation that a joint Olympic bid by baseball and softball will almost certainly exclude men's fastpitch from Olympic consideration, there was much discussion at the Special Congress about this format needs to be supported and promoted around the world.