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Baseball/ Softball merger becomes official

31 October 2012
  • Merged photo of Australia's silver-medal-winning men's baseball team from 2004 and the women's softball bronze medallists from Beijing 2008.
  • © Getty Images/ Olympics.com.au

BASEBALL/SOFTBALL: Today, the International Softball Federation held their Special Congress to consider and vote on a resolution to combine with Baseball (the International Baseball Federation) for the 2020 Olympic Programme. Even with travel concerns with Hurricane Sandy, the ISF experienced a good turnout among their national softball federations.

After considerable discussion and debate, the Special Congress approved the creation of a charter for a new international confederation for Softball and Baseball. The Congress voted for the new international confederation with 71% in favor.

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.”

Tomorrow, President Porter will be traveling to Paraná, Argentina to attend the 9th ISF Junior Men’s World Championship. Fourteen of the world’s best 19-and-under Junior Men’s athletes will participate over the 10 day tournament.

International Softball Federation