International Baseball Federation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) is the worldwide governing body for the sport of baseball. It sanctions play between teams sponsored by the national baseball federations of member countries through competition tournaments including the World Cup of Baseball, the World Baseball Classic (in conjunction with Major League Baseball), the Intercontinental Cup, and the Olympic baseball tournament (in conjunction with the International Olympic Committee).
IBAF was founded in 1938. It changed its name several times in its history - in 1944 it took on the official name Federación Internacional de Béisbol Amateur (FIBA), in 1973 it spawned the rival Federación Mundial de Béisbol Amateur (FEMBA), which merged back with FIBA in 1976 under the name International Baseball Association (AINBA), changing the official acronym to IBA in 1984, before returning to its original name and abbreviation in 2000.
There are 112 member countries across five different Continental Confederations recognized by IBAF.
IBAF's headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland. The president was Aldo Notari of Italy until his death on 25 July 2006 [1].
[edit] Member confederations
- African Baseball & Softball Association (ABSA) - 16 member countries
- Baseball Confederation of Oceania (BCO) - 10 member countries
- Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA) - 20 member countries
- Confédération Européenne de Baseball (CEB) - 40 member countries
- Confederación Panamericana de Béisbol (COPABE) - 26 member countries
