• Submitted by: admin
• International
• South America
• Sports
• 08 / 18 / 2007

The decision has sparked a major controversy. "Venezuela will make an appeal to the Executive Committee of the IBAF regarding the unilateral decision made by that organizations president, Harvey Schiller, to cancel the championship," said Edwin Zerpa, head of the Venezuelan Baseball Federation.

Zerpa said that the Venezuelan Federation regards the attitude of Schiller as an abuse of power, since he cancelled the event single handedly, without consulting the IBAF Executive Committee or the continental confederations.

On Wednesday, the IBAF president Zerpa announced the suspension of the championships arguing that the main reason was the absence of the China-Taipei (Taiwan) team, which was not given visas to travel to Venezuela.

Zerpa said Venezuela is within its right to appeal, since "we met all the requirements for the organization of this kind of event, including the large investments to guarantee the highest quality of the facilities."

"Pursuant to the request by teams from the United States and Japan, the city of Barquisimento had been prepared, specifically the Daniel 'Chino Canonigo Stadium as a venue of the championship, in addition to the Metropolitan Stadium, with a capacity for more than 20,000 people," he noted.

Nonetheless, the organizers will hold a continental championship with the participation of eight of the ten baseball teams that originally intended to participate in the World Championship: United States, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Colombia, Cuba, Aruba and Venezuela

Source: Juventud Rebelde