The XXXVII ESF Congress, hosted by the Malta Baseball and Softball Association, took place in the beautiful background of Mellieha on February 3^rd-5^th, 2012.

Twenty-two Member Federations were present at the annual meeting: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, France, Great Britain, Germany , Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Russia, Slovenia, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine. For the very first time, also the delegates of the two observer Federations Cyprus and Lithuania were attending the congress as they are in the process of submitting all necessary documents for their full affiliation to the ESF.

Don Porter, president of the International Softball Federation attended the Congress and made a brief speech during the first session on Saturday morning, updating the Congress on ISF activities and plans for the future.

(from left to right: Andre Van Oberbeek -ESF President-, Mario de Bono -MABS President-, Don Porter -ISF President)

Friday Committees proved once again to be a crucial moment of dialog both between the different delegates and between the delegates and the ESF board members.

The Financial Commission confirmed that the ESF finance is proceeding according to the budget that was analyzed by Eddy van Straelen, treasurer and chairman, who went through the situation in 2011 and the potential sources of income for the future.

1^st Vice-president and chairman Totoni Sanna, lead an important presentation of the upcoming projects and budget of the Development Commission stressing that fifty percent of the 2012 budget will be used for the juvenile category growth mainly through the Beeball program and the school teacher´s manual.  

New members of the Commission were introduced: Anton Kops (NED) will follow the Beeball program, Jens Terkelsen (DEN) will be responsible for the fastpitch men and John Austin (IRL) will lead the growth of the slowpitch. 

The agreement between ASA and ESF, first presented by Ami Baran during the last Congress in Antwerp, has taken great steps forward. The cooperation will involve the majority of ESF Federations that will be adopted and helped by one of ASA states in terms of equipment and clinics for coaches, players and umpires.

A very impressive Marketing Committee session was held with Michael Schmidt leading the way with his new members Ruud Van Zetten and Web Consultant Davide Dozza. A recap of the 2011 season was given which included the summary of the play by play action all over the competitions in Europe and the TV coverage at the European Championship Women 2012 in Ronchi Italy. Most of the games were broadcasted through the internet. Finals were live on Italian television and in a summery play in the Dutch television. The most important factor of this report was in the numbers with 4.5 million hits on the internet, Final game with 1.5 million hits, with over 40.000 unique visitors. More than 600.000 households were involved by seeing live stream and TV with softball. For European Softball is a quite good exposure.

The new website will be the perfect addition for 2012 and with the help of our website expert, Davide Dozza, the growth of our marketing value will sure reach new horizons.

The ESF will also embark on an ambitious plan over the next two years. Starting in 2013 with exhibition games, training, and school programs all over Europe with top teams from probably Japan, Australia, China, USA, Canada and New Zealand.

In 2013 the Olympic Committee will decide which sports will be added in the 2020 Olympics. With the ESF program we will try to have some influence on that decision.

The Technical and Competitions Commission, after reviewing the 2011 tournaments, allotted the European Cup Women A to Enschede (NED) and the European Cup Winner Cup Women B to Trieste (ITA).

Drawings were made for the 21 teams participating in the European Super Cup Men that will take place in Prague. Teams will be divided into 4 pools:

Pool A: Eagles (CZE), Bulls (DEN), Richings Park (GBR), Braschaat (BEL), Indians (SVK), Travellers (GER)

Pool B: Havlíčkův Brod (CZE), Odense Giants (DEN), Storks (NED), Pessac (FRA), Lupi Roma (ITA)

Pool C: Chomutov (CZE), Hørsholm (DEN), DVH (NED), Cavigal (FRA), Medvenica (CRO)

Pool D: Spectrum (CZE), Vikings (DEN), Spikes (NED), Chicaboos (BEL), Mask (SVK)

During the Congress sessions on Saturday draws were made, live streaming on the ESF web site, also for the three Championships: Junior Girls, Under 22 Girls and Men.

European Championship Junior Girls: Pool A – RUS, NED, BEL, LTU; Pool B - ITA, FRA, CRO, DEN ; Pool C – CZE, GBR, ISR, GRE; Pool D – GER, ESP, AUT, UKR.

European Championship U22 Girls: Pool A - CZE, FRA, UKR, BUL and Pool B – RUS, POL, SVK, GRE.

European Championship Men: Pool A - DEN, NED, ISR, CRO and Pool B - CZE, GBR, BEL, SVK.

2013 General Congress, which will be an election congress, has not been awarded yet.