Curious about an eventual start of the Belgian Top League, yours truly contacted some persons who know about the situation. Even if the Belgian federal government will liberalize the corona rules, it remains to be seen when the Belgian Top League can start.
On May 8, several rules will be loosened again. That may mean that amateur sports can slowly start up again without fans in the stands, but a decision has to be made on that subject. More about that will be decided on May 11. But even IF the federal government will decide in favor of amateur sports to start, the local Flemish and Walloon government can make their own decisions.
When in comes to Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium), amateur sports including baseball could likely slowly start up again. But in Wallonia (the French speaking part of Belgium), they have a different point of view on that. Certain persons in the circles of the local government incline to have amateur sports started again somewhere around mid- June or at the end of June. This would mean that Flemish teams at lower levels can play games but for the Belgian Top League, the highest level of baseball in Belgium, this may be a major setback. Since there are two teams from Wallonia (Mont-Saint-Guibert Phoenix and Namur Angels), the KBBSF (Royal Belgian Baseball and Softball Federation) cannot start the Top League without these two teams. The KBBSF is the Belgian baseball and softball federation and cannot decide in favour of Flemish teams and leave the Walloon teams behind. It has to look at the interests of teams from both parts of Belgium.
On its website, the KBBSF (or FRBBS in French) comes with the following statment:
For now, nothing is engraved in stone yet. Let’s hope that the Walloon government will decide in favour of amateur sports and allow it to start earlier than mid-June or at the end of June. Otherwise, the Top League season will be very short.
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