The Confederation of European Baseball was formed in
1953. The
European Softball Federation was formed in
1976, which then merged (baseball and softball) and formed into WBSC Europe in
2018.
CEB 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 of Italy, Secretary General Roger Panaye of Belgium and Vice President and head of the Technical Commission Luis Barrio of 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. In 1957 in
Amsterdam,
Netherlands,
Sweden became the seventh member, and FEB became an eight-country federation in
London 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. In April 1969 the two Federations re-entered FEB. In 1971 another Italian, Bruno Beneck, succeeded Steno Borghese during the Congress held in
Milan.
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 Européenne de Baseball Amateur. In 1974 the first U-18 European Championship for players of age 18 and under was played. The first title went to the Netherlands. The Dutch also claimed the first U-16 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, Netherlands, Guus Van der Heiden of 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. During the 1990s the number of member countries increased dramatically up to 33 by 1994, at which time it was decided to drop the word
Amateur from the name of the Confederation, known since then as CEB:
Confederation Européenne du Baseball in French and
Confederation of European Baseball in English. CEB also created the Cup Winners Cup in 1990 and the CEB Cup in 1993. Martin Miller of Germany, who had been part of the executive since 1995, succeeded Aldo Notari (who was nominated Honorary President) in 2005, during the Congress in
Prague. 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 two. Starting in the 2009 season, only a single
European Cup for Clubs is played. Miller resigned from the presidency during the 2012 Congress in
Rotterdam. Petr Ditrich of the
Czech Republic was the interim president until the 2013 Congress in
Bled, Slovenia, that elected Jan Esselman of the Netherlands as the new president.
ESF In 1976 in
Rome,
Italy, 6 countries (
Belgium,
France,
Germany,
Italy,
Netherlands and
Spain) gave birth to the European Softball Federation (ESF). The first Executive Committee was formed by President Bruno Benek of Italy and Secretary General Theo Vleeshhouwer of Netherlands. In reaction to the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, WBSC Europe relocated competitions that had been scheduled to be held in Russia during 2022, and excluded Russian and Belarusian teams from all its 2022 competitions. WBSC had a budget of in 2024. == WBSC World Rankings ==