The
International Baseball Federation (
Spanish:
Federación Internacional de Béisbol,
French:
Fédération international de baseball) is the former worldwide governing body recognized by the
International Olympic Committee as overseeing, deciding and executing the policy of the sport of
baseball. The IBAF has since become the international baseball "Division" of the
World Baseball Softball Confederation, the officially recognized world governing body for baseball (and softball). One of its principal responsibilities under the WBSC is to organize, standardize and sanction international competitions among baseball's 124 national governing bodies through its various tournaments to determine a world champion and calculate
world rankings for both men's and women's baseball. Prior to the establishment of the WBSC, which has since superseded its authority, the IBAF had been the lone entity that can assign the title of "world champion" to any baseball team delegated to represent a nation. Its offices are housed within the WBSC headquarters in
Lausanne,
Switzerland—the Olympic Capital.