Europe could lose Olympic place

The International Baseball Federation has updated the qualification process for the eight places in the baseball tournament in the 2008 Olympics. The changes could mean that only one team from Europe will be at the next Olympics in Beijing.

Under the new system, there will be two phases of qualification. In the first phase, two teams from the Americas, one from Asia and one from Europe will qualify through continental competitions. The remaining three places will be decided in an eight-team qualifying tournament between the third- and fourth-placed teams from America, the second- and third-placed teams from Asia, the second- and third-placed teams from Europe, the African champions and the Oceania champions.

Under the previous qualification system, two teams from Europe automatically qualified. In Athens, there were three European teams because Greece qualified as the host nation.