MARCO
MANNUCCI
SPORTS GOVERNANCEREGIONAL · NATIONAL · CONTINENTAL

FROM BELONGING
TO INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE.

Governance has given me three different vantage points: building a regional sports identity, serving on a national federation Board across three mandates, and working inside European structures during a major institutional transformation.

2012–2016

REGIONAL

FIBS Piemonte & Valle d’Aosta · identity, development pathways, Academy and regional selections.

2016–2028

NATIONAL

FIBS Federal Board · territory, systems, resources, process, accountability and sustainability.

2017–2022

CONTINENTAL

CEB Executive Committee + WBSC Europe Vice Presidency · European sport governance and institutional integration.

01 / FIBS PIEMONTE & VALLE D’AOSTA

NOT MANY CLUBS.
ONE STRONG REGION.

The objective was not simply to coordinate a limited number of clubs. It was to make them feel part of something larger: a regional system with its own identity, ambition and sense of belonging.

As Regional President, I worked to connect clubs, athletes, coaches and regional structures so that representing Piemonte became something young players could genuinely aspire to.

DEVELOPMENT STARTS WITH BELONGING.

Regional selections were central to that idea. They created a realistic intermediate goal for athletes from every club: improve, earn selection and represent the region — a national team within reach.

Piemonte Junior League regional baseball selection
REGIONAL SELECTIONS

A NATIONAL TEAM
WITHIN REACH.

Strong regional teams gave young athletes an immediate target beyond club competition. The Junior League Baseball selection became a clear example: a team built largely around players developed through the Piemonte Academy and capable of winning the national regional competition in its category.

PIEMONTE ACADEMY

CLUBS → ACADEMY →
REGIONAL SELECTION.

The Academy was designed as an additional development environment, not a replacement for club coaching: bring promising athletes together, expose them to higher-level technical work and create a common regional pathway.

The point was structural. Development, identity and performance should reinforce each other.

Early Piemonte Baseball Academy group
FIBS Piemonte governance meeting
BUILDING A REGIONAL CULTURE

A REGION IS MORE THAN
A LIST OF CLUBS.

Small competitions, awards, meetings and promotional initiatives helped create visibility around athletes and clubs and reinforced the idea of a shared sporting community. The scale of each initiative mattered less than the continuity of the message: you belong to something larger.

FIBS FEDERAL BOARD2016 → 2028
FIBS Federal Board after the 2016 electoral assembly
FIBS Federal Board after the 2020 electoral assembly
FIBS Federal Board after the 2024 electoral assembly
2016ELECTED
2020RE-ELECTED
2024RE-ELECTED
2028CURRENT MANDATE END
02 / FROM THE TERRITORY UP

HOW DOES A NATIONAL DECISION ACTUALLY WORK ON THE GROUND?

Before joining the national Board, I had already experienced federation governance from the regional side. That perspective never disappeared.

Across three Federal Board mandates, one of my most consistent areas of work has been the relationship between the Federation, Regional Committees and clubs: responsibilities, resources, development objectives and the practical effect of national policy.

Over time, individual operational questions became a broader approach: give territories clearer objectives, defined resources and greater responsibility for the results they are expected to produce.

FROM LOCAL REQUESTS → TO CLEAR CRITERIA → TO PROJECTS → TO RESPONSIBILITY.
FROM CONTRIBUTIONS TO A SYSTEM

TURNING SUPPORT INTO
A REPEATABLE METHOD.

A key line of work was moving from episodic support for Regional Committees toward structured project funding: defined deadlines, predefined budgets and selection linked to development objectives.

NEW REGISTRATIONSNEW CLUBSCOMMUNICATIONSPORTING ACTIVITY
Marco Mannucci at a regional institutional event
03 / SYSTEMS & DEVELOPMENT

THE QUESTION IS NOT ONE PROJECT. IT IS WHETHER THE SYSTEM CAN REPEAT IT.

Development work repeatedly brought the Board back to structure: pathways, standards, project evaluation, national direction and local delivery.

The recurring principle was simple: a federation should create mechanisms that help good local work happen again — not depend entirely on isolated initiatives or individual relationships.

BUILD THE PATHWAY, NOT ONLY THE ACTIVITY.
04 / RESOURCES & ACCOUNTABILITY

BUDGETS ARE DECISIONS ABOUT WHAT THE SYSTEM VALUES.

My interventions on budgets and allocations have usually started from an operational question: what is this resource supposed to produce?

That means connecting financial decisions to their purpose and asking whether the assumptions behind the budget remain sustainable. The Board does not simply approve numbers; it owns the strategic choices behind them.

GOVERNANCE MEANS PROCESS

OBJECTIVE.
PROCESS.
EVIDENCE.
ACCOUNTABILITY.

Good governance is not only about making decisions. It is also about being able to explain how they were made, what objective they serve and who is accountable for the outcome.

Across the mandates, my attention increasingly moved toward accurate records, clear mandates, correct procedures, defined objectives, economic sustainability and the responsibility of the governing body to examine its own decisions critically.

Marco Mannucci speaking in a federation governance setting
THREE MANDATES / EVOLUTION
2016–2020

OPERATING INSIDE GOVERNANCE

Entering national governance from a regional and operational background. Clubs, structures, rules, facilities, development and the practical consequences of Board decisions.

2020–2024

BUILDING SYSTEMS

Moving from individual decisions to repeatable mechanisms: territorial funding, structured projects, development criteria and clearer responsibility.

2024–2028

ACCOUNTABILITY & SUSTAINABILITY

More explicit focus on objectives, economic sustainability, decision processes, transparency and whether institutional choices produce the intended result.

CONTINENTAL GOVERNANCEEUROPE · 2017 → 2022
CEB · CONFEDERATION OF EUROPEAN BASEBALL

GOVERNING
EUROPEAN BASEBALL.

Elected to the CEB Executive Committee in 2017, I worked within the continental body responsible for the sporting architecture of European baseball.

The remit was broad and deliberately practical: European national-team and club competitions, competition regulations, player eligibility and international transfers, development of umpires and scorers, member-federation relations, development and promotional initiatives.

COMPETITIONSREGULATIONSPLAYER MOVEMENTOFFICIALSDEVELOPMENTPROMOTION
Marco Mannucci nameplate at CEB Congress as Executive Committee Member
CEB and ESF representatives at a European congress
CEB · 2017–2022

SPORT FIRST.
CONTINENTAL SCALE.

The role added a European layer to competition governance: different national systems, different levels of development, one continental calendar and one regulatory framework that had to work across them.

WBSC Europe Congress with the founding European leadership group
WBSC EUROPE · VICE PRESIDENT · 2019–2022

TWO HISTORIC ORGANISATIONS.
ONE CONTINENTAL VOICE.

WBSC Europe was first and foremost an institutional project: bring together CEB for baseball and ESF for softball, two organisations with their own histories, cultures and governance structures, into a stronger common European framework.

05 / BUILDING CONSENSUS

INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IS A PEOPLE PROCESS.

As Vice President within the founding Interim Executive Committee, my work sat inside that transition: relationships, explanation, dialogue and consensus-building across federations and stakeholders with different histories and priorities.

The objective was easy to state and harder to achieve: combine energies, reduce historical separation and create a continental organisation with greater weight, clearer representation and a more unified direction.

RELATIONSHIPS → EXPLANATION → CONSENSUS → ONE STRUCTURE.

Statutes and organisational charts matter. But institutional integration only moves when people understand why the change is necessary and decide to move together.

THE WORK BEHIND THE STRUCTURE

ONE TABLE.
MANY FEDERATIONS.

The transition required constant dialogue across a large European federation network. Different sporting traditions and different expectations had to be translated into a shared governance direction.

European baseball and softball federation representatives in a continental governance meeting
WBSC Europe Board meeting
SUPER 6 · SPECIAL PROJECT

THE IDEA
BEFORE THE STRUCTURE.

Super 6 belongs here rather than under CEB: a visible expression of the principle behind WBSC Europe. Baseball and softball, traditionally governed separately, presented together as one European event product.

It was a practical demonstration of the central idea: together was stronger.

WHAT GOVERNANCE CHANGED

THE QUESTIONS BECAME BIGGER THAN DELIVERY.

Regional, national and continental governance taught me to look beyond whether an initiative can be delivered.

WHY ARE WE DOING IT?
WHO DOES IT SERVE?
HOW IS IT FUNDED?
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE TERRITORY?
WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE?

Those are the same questions I now bring into venues, projects and Major Games operations.

PROJECTS

GOVERNANCE INFORMS DELIVERY.

Explore the operational work →
FACILITY MANAGEMENT

RESPONSIBILITY FROM ANOTHER ANGLE.

Explore facilities →