(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Hosting European Champions Cup 2016 awarded to Rimini
Nederlands
 BARCELONA (Spain) -
During its recent executive meeting in Barcelona, the European Baseball Confederation CEB) has awarded the hosts for the international competitions that are scheduled for 2016.
The European Champions Cup will be organized in Rimini (Italy) and will take place from May 31 or June 1 through June 4 or 5.
However, an official confirmation has not yet been issued by the CEB, as it announced that Rimini still has to fulfill a requirement.
Next year, there will be only one tournament again with teams playing for the European Cup.
In the past, there always had been a single European Cup-tournament, plus an additional Cup Winners Cup-tournament.
A few years ago, there were two separate qualifying tournaments.
The top two of both tournaments advanced to the Final Four, which was been played in Barcelona (Spain) for a few years and in Brno (Czech Republic).
This proved to be a costly event and so, a few years ago, only the two winners of the two qualifiers advanced to a best-of-three final for the European Champions Cup.
Logistically, this also resulted in some difficulties and so, the CEB decided to return to a single-tournament-format.
Dutch champion Curaçao Neptunus and regular season-winner L&D Amsterdam Pirates qualified for the event.
Besides the European Champions Cup, there will be more European Cup-tournaments, including the CEB Cup and the Federations Cup.
The CEB Cup-tournament (May 31/June 1-June 4/5) will be played in Rouen/Chartres (France) next year, while the hosting of the Federations Cup (June 20/21-June 25/26) has been awarded to Brno (Czech Republic).
There will be three Federations Cup Qualifying Tournaments, which will be held in London (Great Britain), Borgerhout (Belgium) and Sant Boi de Llobregat (Spain).
These three tournaments will be held June 20/21 through June 25/26.
Earlier, the European Championship, A-Pool already had been awarded to Hoofddorp (Netherlands), where it will be played September 9-18.
Also announced were the hosts of five other European Championships.
The EC Under 12 (juveniles) will be played in Trebic (Czech Republic), starting on July 4 and ending on July 9 or 10.
The EC Under 15 (cadets) Qualifier will take place in Huenenberg/Lucerne (Switzerland), beginning om July 18 and closing on July 23 or 24.
The EC Under 15 (cadets) will be organized in Chartres/Rouen (France) and will take place July 18-23.
The EC Under 18 (juniors) will be played in Gijon (Spain) on July 11-17.
The EC Under 21 has been awarded to Tel Aviv (Israel) and will begin there on August 1 and ending on August 6 or 7.
There is currently one tournament left without a host, which is the European Championship, C-Pool, which is scheduled to take place July 25-31.
(November 16)
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