 World Cup dates will probably change
Nederlands
BRUSSELS (Belgium) -
The dates for this years World Cup Baseball probably will be changed, which was the conclusion of the CEB Congress this weekend in Belgian capital Brussels.
Late January, the International BAseball Federation (IBAF) awarded the organization for the event to Panama.
It was not clear for a long time whether there would be or would not be a World Cup this year, while such an event was to take place according to the international calender, as World Cups are staged in odd years.
When a possibility arose that this year might be used for a preliminary round for the 2013 World Baseball Classic, the World Cup might be dropped.
However, when it also remained unclear whether this preliminary round was to be organized, the IBAF decided to put the World Cup back on the agenda.
This led to some reactions from qualified countries (including the Netherlands), who already had completed their budget for this year without a World Cup (and therefore probably also without a preliminary WBC-round).
But there also was a conflict of dates, as the European Baseball Confederation (CEB) planned the Final Four for the European Cup Championship in Brno (Czech Republic) for the last weekend of September.
This also would be the first week of the World Cup.
During the CEB Congress, the situation was discussed and now both the Final Four, as well as the World Cup probably both will get new playing dates.
The Final Four probably will be moved to two midweek-days (Tuesday-Wednesday) to enable the players who also are members of their national teams (Netherlands, Italy) participate in this event, but also leave on time for the World Cup.
A tentative starting date for the World Cup is now September 29 with a possible date for the final being October 15.
The initial dates for the World Cup were final week September-first week October.
As of now, the last words aren't said yet about both events, so the playing dates are all but set at the moment.
(March 15)
|
