 Cup Winners Cup in Italy; 2 candidates for European Cup
Nederlands
 BREGENZ (Austria) -
In its latest update, the European Softball Federation has named the host for next years Cup Winners Cup-tournament, while two candidates remain in the race for the organisation of the European Cup-tournament.
Both events will be held August 19-24.
As of now, Torre San Patrizio in the Italian region of Fermo, is the site for the Cup Winners Cup-tournament.
Torre San Patrizio is located near the town of Fermo, south of Macerata.
While Torre San Patrizio is the lone candidate (earlier Prague was also mentioned), the final approval of the site will come during the Congress of the ESF next February in Bled (Slovenia).
In 2005, Torre San Patrizio, the home city of Unione Fermana Softball, was the site for the European Cup, B-Pool tournament.
Next year, the Cup Winners Cup-tournament will have a new format, as the A- and B-Pool have merged into one tournament.
This means that, in theory, a total of 16 teams could participate in the event.
This year, Hotel Ambassador c.c. Terrasvogels won the Cup Winners Cup when the tournament was held in Nuoro on the Italian island of Sardinia.
Last year, the event also was held in Italy, when Castions di Strada was the host.
There, Terrasvogels reached the final.
So, Terrasvogels will travel to Italy for the third consecutive year to participate in the CWC.
It will be the 33rd time that Terrasvogels participates in an European Cup-event, breaking its own record.
It marks the fourth time in the last five years that the event will be played in Italy.
In 2009, Terrasvogels won the Cup when the tournament was held in Parma.
In 2010, the Dutch city of Haarlem was the playing site.
The site for the organisation of the tournament for the European Cup will be awarded during next years ESF Congress.
At the moment, there are two candidates.
Dutch champion Alcmaria Victrix applied for the organisation of the event to be held on its site in Alkmaar.
On the same site, the European Cadets Championship of 2009 was held.
Czech capital Prague is the second city that applied for the organisation.
Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem won the European Cup this year in Enschede (Netherlands) and therefore automatically qualified for participation.
Besides Terrasvogels and Sparks Haarlem, all other participating teams have yet to be announced officially.
In both events, a second Dutch club will participate.
Dutch champion Alcmaria Victrix will play in the European Cup, while Gryphons, which finished in fourth place in the regular season, will be eligible to participate in the Cup Winners Cup-tournament.
Dupnitsa (Bulgaria) will be the host the B-Pool tournament of the European Cup, but that also has to be approved during the Congress.
Earlier, it already was confirmed that two European Championships next year will take place in the Czech Republic.
The European Women Championship will be held July 7-13 in Prague, while the European Cadets Championship takes place August 5-10 in Ostrava.
(December 13)
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