2020-10-06

WBSC Members vote to hold IV Congress in March 2022

05/10/2020
The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today announced that the IV WBSC Congress, previously set to be held in November 2021, will now officially take place in March 2022 in Taipei.
The proposal to delay the Congress by four months was approved with 98.4% of WBSC Member votes in favour. The total vote count was 127 in favour and 2 against, out of a total of 243 possible votes.
WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari said: “I am pleased to see that our members have overwhelmingly agreed with the Executive Board's recommendation to move the WBSC Congress to March 2022.
“This decision was made in the interest of our Member Federations and Executive Board Members who will have an exceptionally busy calendar next year, including our highly anticipated Olympic comeback in Tokyo, and provides the full opportunity for members to attend in person for what is a very important elective-Congress.”
The WBSC Executive Board (EB) approved a proposal in August to delay the Congress to March 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The EB and Member Federations have taken into account the importance of the IV Congress, which is due to hold elections, including for WBSC president.
The WBSC currently has 11 events on the preliminary calendar for 2021, an increased competition programme due to tournaments postponed by the pandemic in 2020. Holding the Congress in 2022 will serve as a precautionary measure to avoid a potentially congested calendar next year.
The postponement will also allow National Federations to hold their own congresses following baseball-softball’s highly-anticipated return to the Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020.