SportBusiness.com

Softball snubs joint baseball bid for Olympic status

The International Softball Federation said yesterday it has rejected baseball's latest offer to join together in a bid for Olympic reinstatement.

The two sports were dropped from the 2012 London Olympic Games programme, then rejected last year when the International Olympic Committee voted in golf and seven-a-side rugby for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The ISF now wants to continue independently to try and persuade the IOC to include men's and women's fast-pitch competition at the 2020 Summer Games.

International Baseball Federation president Riccardo Fraccari recently suggested a joint approach was "the only way back" to Olympic status.

The 2020 sports programme will be set in 2013.