The 2011 European Softball Championship is an international softball competition hosted by the European Softball Federation ESF . The EM 2011 will be the 17th European Softball Championship in history. The final round will take place from July 31 to August 6, 2011 in the Italian province of Gorizia . The defending champion is the team from the Netherlands . The top three will qualify for the World Championship in Whitehorse , Canada , which will take place from July 13-22, 2012.
For the first time since 1995 there was only one tournament, from 1997 to 2009 there were A and B pool tournaments with promoters and relegators. The Italian cities of Ronchi dei Legionari , Staranzano and Redipuglia were selected as venues for the European Championship . The main draw of the EM is the Ballpark in Ronchi, 30 km north of the city of Trieste . Overall, the games will take place on four fields. With 17 editions of the tournament it was the sixth time that Italy hosted the European Championship. This was last the case in 2003 when the EM took place in Saronno .
logo
A design by the Italian graphic designer Silvia Sattolo was selected from a total of nine proposals as the official logo of the 2011 European Softball Championship.
Grouping
The 20 participants in the European Championship are divided into four groups. The drawing of the groups was carried out on February 5, 2011 during the congress of the European Softball Federation in Antwerp . The originally registered teams from Greece, Turkey and Slovenia withdrew. The groups consist of five teams each. The national teams of Austria and Switzerland play in group C, the German team in group D.
In groups E and F, the first and second of the preliminary round groups play for places in the final round. The first in the group contest the upper semifinals of the page playoffs, the second and third play crosswise for a place in the lower semifinals and the fourth play for 7th place.