Following discussions with member Federations and the presentation of the new format of the European club competition at the Forum discussions in Dublin, the Executive Commission of the Confederation of European Baseball has decided to continue with a few changes to our plans on the format for the CEB European Cup tournaments.
From the season 2016. there will be 3 European cup competitions: a European Champions cup, a CEB cup and a Federation cup.
We have tried to accomplish 2 main objectives. Upon a request from most of the national Federations, about creating more cups competition, and also we want to establish a top European cup competition, with the best 8 teams, competing for the European Champion title, and for qualification to the Asia or World Club Series.
Also we keep the promotion/relegation system between the various levels of competition, so countries can upgrade their teams every year, based upon the results of their clubs.
The starting position for the clubs will be the standings following the 2015 European Cup competition, and we will form European cups, based on the following:
European Cups
European Champions Cup 2016
Participants (8) the Champions or runner up of following Federations:
· First 4 placed Federations from European “A” cup in Paris – 2/7 July 2015.
· First 4 placed Federations from the European “A” cup in Rotterdam – 2/7 July 2015.
C.E.B. Cup 2016
Participants (8) the Champions or runner up of following Federations:
· Last 2 placed federations from the European “A” cup in Paris – 2/7 July 2015.
· Last 2 placed federations from the European “A” cup in Rotterdam – 2/7 July 2015.
· 4 winners of the Qualifier tournaments played 15-20/21 June 2015 in Antwerp, Athens, Karlovac and Ostrava.
Federations Cup 2016
Four tournaments which are qualifiers for a play-off tournament.
Each tournament will have 6 teams.
Playoff tournament will be played in September with the 4 winners of the qualifiers.
Participation countries:
· Runner up of the Federations that have one representative in Champions and CEB cup
· Champions of all other Federations, who are not participating in Champions or CEB cup.
· Runner up of the best ranked Federations who are not participating in Champions and CEB cup (decided by the TC).
Promotion-Relegation system 2016 and further:
From the European Champions Cup the last placed Federation will be relegated to the C.E.B. cup. From the C.E.B. Cup the best placed Federation will be promoted to the European Champions Cup.
From the European C.E.B. Cup 2 last placed Federations will be relegated to the Federations Cup. From Federations cup the best 2 placed Federation will be promoted to the CEB cup
Note: The CEB Executive will investigate with the Federations and the Clubs participating in the Qualifier 2015 and Federation cup 2016 on the support for the Play-Off games in September 2016. If the support for this 2nd competition in the same year is failing, the CEB will develop another system to decide the promotion and relegation between the CEB cup and Federation cup.
d.3 Foreign players
The participation of foreign players in the Cup competitions shall be regulated as follows:
The players who have a different nationality than that of the country the team represents and have a different Nationality than one of the CEB Member Federations, shell be considered as foreign players.
The Preliminary Team Roster (PTR) of the regular team of the national competition and in which the players must have played for their club in the year the cup is held, shall be received at the C.E.B. Secretariat at the latest one month before the start of the competition.
The limitation of foreign players allowed on the Final Team Roster (FTR) will be a maximum of 3 (three) players.
The Federation must sign the roster and confirm herewith, that the players are regularly registered in the national competition with their club in the same year of participation in the cup competition.
Teams not complying with this rule to submit the forms will be obliged to pay a fine of 1.000 Euro for the Cups and 500 Euro for the Qualifier.
