International Baseball Federation
The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) is the former worldwide governing body of baseball. It has since been superseded by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), and continues to exist as the WBSC's baseball division. Between 1944 and 1975, it was known by its Spanish-language name, as the Federación Internacional de Béisbol Amateur, or FIBA.
For the international governing body that oversees basketball, see FIBA.Abbreviation
IBAF
1938
Worldwide
124 National Federations
Prior to the establishment of the WBSC, the IBAF was the sole entity recognized by the International Olympic Committee as overseeing the sport, and as the designated organizer and promoter of major international tournaments like the Baseball World Cup (originally the Amateur World Series) and the Intercontinental Cup. It also organized the inaugural World Baseball Classic (WBC), in cooperation with Major League Baseball, in 2006.
One of its principal responsibilities as the WBSC's umbrella is to organize, standardize and sanction international competitions, using the WBSC name, among baseball's 124 national governing bodies through its various tournaments to determine a world champion and calculate world rankings for both men's and women's baseball. Its offices are housed within the WBSC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland—the Olympic Capital.
The International Baseball Federation organized the following world championship tournaments before WBSC merger:
The first-ever 12U Baseball World Championship was played in Taipei from July 8 to 17, 2011. Taiwan won the first title.
In addition, the IBAF is the sanctioning body for the World Baseball Classic, which is hosted by Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association and held every four years in the year after the Summer Olympics. The IBAF abandoned its former world championship, the Baseball World Cup, after the 2011 edition in favor of an expanded World Baseball Classic. It was originally intended to be the sanctioning body for the Premier 12, a new men's international tournament – featuring the twelve best-ranked national teams – that began in 2015; that tournament instead has been sanctioned by the WBSC. This event is played in the year preceding the Summer Olympics.
The IBAF discontinued the Intercontinental Cup, which was an invitational event and last held in 2010.
The IBAF comprises five continental confederations that currently represent a total of 127 national member federations.
See also: Baseball awards of the International Baseball Fedederation (IBAF)