In an official declaration on its website, A.S.D. San Marino baseball club has announced to freeze its participation in the Italian Serie A for the time being. Reason is several questions it has raised about the new format of the Serie A with 32 clubs.
It the declaration, A.S.D. San Marino is summing up a total of eleven points that it has raised its eyebrows about.
-The number of sports visas available is not evenly distributed among the 32 teams and, given that there is a forecast of having to and being able to meet, the risk of sporting disparity is obvious.
– Twelve teams will finish the championship on July 4th, it is surprising that those who represent the athletes have not at all assessed this huge inequality compared to the others.
– An athlete registered as “non AFI” can be deployed as “AFI”
– Study reasons can have a residence permit granted to non-resident foreigners.
-The transfer of EU and foreign athletes with residence permits does not give certainty throughout the season.
– The transfers are open until July 4th and the twelve teams that will finish the season can drug the league despite the expected numerical constraint.
– All three-game finals remain a big unknown. Ours is not a tournament, but a Championship. Any access, if there are two weekly matches, must give equal opportunities in the same home and away matches and not by drawing lots.
– At the start of the championship there is the concrete possibility of deploying a totally different roster from the next. Arriving third or fourth avoiding the strongest teams to meet the weakest with a transformed team is the first strategy that comes to mind (6 weeks, 60,000 euros).
– The three-week break in July (for the first two teams) does not help the preparation, as well as incurring unnecessary costs and reduction of innings played.
-The Champions Cup is positioned in a critical period of the championship and will end up penalizing or helping the participants (risk of injury or greater preparation due to the possibility of playing every day). Who will have to play it, if it results in third or fourth position in the ranking, will not be able to participate in the playoffs scheduled for the same week.
– Under 23 issue. Although the problem probably does not exist today, with 32 participating teams nothing is taken for granted. If the intention is to raise young people, the role of DH should NEVER be considered for this category.
-From the first PREMIERE phase, is it expected that the first two classified retain the right to the PREMIERE in the following season, and the others?
Perhaps the most important issue is the risk of disparity between the teams as the sports visas are not equally distributed among all 32 Serie A teams. In a previous post, the Dutch Baseball Hangout already raised a question about the chances former Serie A2 teams hae to reach the playoffs/ championship series.
Anyhow, A.S.D. San Marino will investigate the issues it has raised questions about. And the club wants to have a meeting with all parties in which the issues will be clarified. Until then, the club will put its participation in this year’s Serie A on hold.
Dutch Baseball Hangout 