Confederation of European Baseball

Confederation of European Baseball

Abbreviation	CEB
Formation	1953
Type	International sport federation
Purpose	Sport governing body
Headquarters	Lausanne, Switzerland
Region served	Europe
Membership	38
Official language	English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch
President	Jan Esselman
Parent organization	International Baseball Federation
Website	http://www.baseballeurope.com/

The Confederation of European Baseball (French: Confédération Européenne de Baseball, CEB), is the governing body of baseball within Europe. The CEB was founded in 1953 with 5 members, which were Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy and Spain. As of today, there are 38 members, excluding Armenia. In 2010, there were 112,303 players in the CEB countries.

The confederation is responsible for operating the European Baseball Championship, a championship that has been running since 1954 in Europe.

History

In April 1953 in Paris (France), 5 countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) gave birth to the European Baseball Federation, originally named in French Féderation Européenne de Baseball (FEB). The first Executive Committee was formed by President Steno Borghese (Italy), Secretary General Roger Panaye (Belgium) and Vice President and head of the Technical Commission Luis Barrio (Spain).

In 1954 the first European Championship was played in Belgium and Italy claimed the victory.

The sixth member country, The Netherlands, was accepted at the 1956 Congress in Milan (Italy).

In 1957 in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Sweden became the seventh member, and FEB became a 8 country federation in London (England) in 1960 when Great Britain was accepted.

In 1963 FEB launched their first club competition. The first European champion of the club competition was Picadero Barcelona.

In 1967 the Federations of Italy and The Netherlands announced their withdrawal from FEB and founded a new Federation: Fédération Amateur Baseball. On April 1969 the 2 Federations re-entered FEB..

In 1971 another Italian, Bruno Beneck, succeeded Steno Borghese during the Congress held in Milan. The Republic of San Marino was accepted as the ninth member.

In 1972 the organization changed its name to European Amateur Baseball Confederation or CEBA, according to the French Confederation Europeenne de Baseball Amateur.

In 1974 the first Under-18 European Championship for players of age 18 and under was played. The first title went to The Netherlands. The Dutch claimed also the first 16 and Under title in 1975. In 1979, during the Congress in Trieste (Italy), Denmark was accepted as the 10th member.

There were already 15 member countries when, in 1985, during the Congress in Zandvoort (The Netherlands) Guus Van der Heiden (The Netherlands) succeeded Bruno Beneck as the President.

When Van der Heiden died, Italian Federation President Aldo Notari was elected as the 4th president of the organization during the 1987 Congress in Barcelona (Spain).

During the 1990s the number of member countries increased dramatically and they were 33 in 1994, when the Executive decided to drop the word "Amateur" from the name of the Confederation, known since then as CEB Confederation Europeenne du Baseball in French and Confederation of European Baseball in English. CEB also created (1990) the Cup Winners Cup and the CEB Cup (1993) and made the experiment of the Super Cup.

Martin Miller of Germany, who had been in the Executive since 1995, succeeded Aldo Notari (who was nominated Honorary President) in 2005, during the Congress in Prague (Czech Republic). Mr Miller was confirmed as President during the 2009 Congress in San Marino. During Miller's presidency the number of European Cups for Clubs was reduced to 2. Starting the 2009 season only a European Cup for Clubs is played.

Miller quit as President during the 2012 Congress in Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Petr Ditrich of the Czech Republic was the interim President until the 2013 Congress, that elected in Bled (Slovenia) Jan Esselman (The Netherlands) as the new President.

CEB has currently 38 member countries.

Members

Austria (1983–) Belarus (1994–) Belgium (1953–) Bulgaria (1992–) Croatia (1992–) Cyprus (1999–) Czech Republic (1993–) Denmark (1979–) Estonia (1992–) Finland (1981–)

France (1953–) Georgia (1992–) Germany (1953–) Great Britain (1960–) Greece (1999–) Hungary (1993–) Ireland (1994–) Israel (1995–) Italy (1953–1967, 1969–) Latvia (2009–)

Lithuania (1992–) Malta (1983–) Moldova (1993–) Netherlands (1956–1967, 1969–) Norway (1993–) Poland (1990–) Portugal (1994–) Romania (1991–) Russia (1992–) San Marino (1971–)

Serbia (2006–) Slovakia (1993–) Slovenia (1992–) Spain (1953–) Sweden (1957–) Switzerland (1982–) Turkey (2001–) Ukraine (1992–)

Former members

Armenia (1994–2011) Czechoslovakia (1989–1993) Serbia and Montenegro (1996–2006) Soviet Union (1988–1992) Tunisia (1957–1962) Yugoslavia (1983–1992)

Rankings

See also: IBAF World Rankings

When the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) first released their world rankings, the Netherlands were the highest ranked team listed. The only continental tournaments recognised at the time were the 2005 and 2007 European Baseball Championship, which were both won by the Netherlands.

The IBAF released their updated rankings list in August 2009, in addition to the most recently contested tournaments being added and their expired counterparts being removed, the results of the 2005 European Baseball Championship were removed. This resulted in the removal of Greece from the rankings list. The Netherlands maintained its position as first of the European teams and sixth of the world.

Rankings as of 7July 2015
CEB Rank	IBAF Rank	Team	Points
1	5	Netherlands	433.50
2	11	Italy	196.18
3	16	Spain	105.52
4	17	Germany	78.90
5	24	Czech Republic	68.93
6	19	Israel	55.47
7	22	Great Britain	50.56
8	31	France	46.75
9	30	Russia	24.85
10	35	Belgium	18.00

CEB Rank	IBAF Rank	Team	Points
11	39	Austria	12.28
12	40	Slovenia	12.25
13	42	Greece	11.13
14	43	Croatia	10.25
15	45	Ukraine	9.69
16	47	Romania	8.92
17	53	Sweden	7.13
18	54	Hungary	6.35
19	55	Ireland	6.24
20	56	Bulgaria	6.04

CEB Rank	IBAF Rank	Team	Points
21	57	Lithuania	6.01
22	59	Switzerland	4.92
23	60	Slovakia	4.63
24	61	Poland	4.58
25	62	Belarus	4.15
26	64	Finland	3.52
27	65	Latvia	2.45
28	68	Georgia	1.03
29	70	Norway	0.25
29	70	Serbia	0.25

CEB Rank	IBAF Rank	Team	Points
Not ranked		Cyprus	0.00
		Denmark	0.00
		Estonia	0.00
		Malta	0.00
		Moldova	0.00
		Portugal	0.00
		San Marino	0.00
		Turkey	0.00

Further reading

• Chetwynd, Josh (2008). Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History. 344 pp. (77 photos). Print ISBN 978-0-7864-3724-5; EBook ISBN 978-0-7864-5175-3

External links

• Confederation of European Baseball website