The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) is pleased to announce the results of Round Three of the Continental Associations Governance Review, which is summarised in the WBSC Governance Report 2023/24.
Establishing a culture of good governance across the entire WBSC family is a key element of the WBSC Strategic Plan 2022-2028, with the results of the Governance Review having an influence on the allocation of the WBSC Development Fund.
The WBSC targeted all seven Continental
Associations (WBSC Africa, WBSC Americas Baseball, WBSC Americas Softball,Baseball Federation of Asia, Softball Asia, WBSC Europe, and WBSC Oceania) withthe final score the result of an evaluation in five different areas:Transparency, Integrity, Democracy, Development and Solidarity and ControlMechanism.
The methodology divides the final outcomein five groups: A1 (100 to 80 points), A2 (79 to 60 points), B (59 to 40points), C (39 to 21 points) and D (20 to 0 points). The WBSC goal is to haveall Continental Associations score at least 60 points.
WBSC Americas Softball and WBSC Europe have become the first Continental Associations to reach the desired target as they improved from B to A2 during the latest review,
WBSC Africa and WBSC Americas Baseball moved up from C to B, Softball Asia and WBSC Oceania repeated their second-round ranking of B while the Baseball Federation of Asia fell from B to C.
The Transparency section scored the highestoverall, followed by the Democracy section, which was consistent with Round 2,while the Control Mechanism section scored the lowest overall.
Inspired by the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) Review of IF Governance, the WBSC followed the same procedure and methodology in its own review of WBSC Continental Associations. After an initial review was held in 2020/2021, including a test round aimed at measuring the governance level of each of the Continental Associations, the WBSC began the second round in November 2022.
The WBSC will complete the fourth round ofthe Continental Associations Governance Review later this year. The scores willbe kept for a two-year term with the goal to give enough time for the WBSC todo its internal review for one year and adjust the latest trends in governanceduring the following year with the Continental Associations' Governance Review.
This approach will allow the Continental Associations to have enough time toimplement their own projects while reducing the burdens of the review process.
