Baseball was controversially voted off the programme for London 2012 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at its Session in Singapore in 2005 and failed in a bid to regain its place for the Games in Rio when golf and rugby sevens were instead chosen in Copenhagen last October.

But Schiller hopes that the popularity of the sport in Americas and the fact the Olympics are being held in South America for the first time will help persuade the IOC to look again at including baseball in 2016, although it would require a change to the Olympic Charter to accommodate an extra sport.

In an interview published in Media Daily News, Schiller said: "I would hope that it's not over for 2016.

"Now that the Games are going to be in the Americas, with the strong support from the Latin nations and the Pan-American Sports Organisation, perhaps there'd be some consideration for baseball in 2016 again."

But Schiller, 70, nevertheless cannot hide his frustration at the way the election of the sports for 2016 was conducted by the IOC, even criticising the role of President Jacques Rogge.

He said: "It was horrible.

"Because the rules kept changing on how the sports were going to get picked.

"Jacques Rogge changed the rules, and he said we'll leave it up to the [IOC] Executive Committee.

"And once that happened, it was clear the focus of the IOC leadership was to bring in sports like rugby and golf - softball and baseball suffered."

Schiller also claimed in the interview that there a schism between the United States Olympic Committee and the rest of the Olympic world that is affecting America's influence in the Movement, and that US foreign policy has contributed to the situation.

He said: "There's been a separation of just basic views between Europeans and the US.

"Some of that has to do with the invasion of Iraq and what's happening on the global basis economically.

"On a personal note, I find the IOC members to be just as friendly as ever, but when you talk about things in a global nature, I see the greatest disconnect that I've seen in the 30 years I've been associated with them."

Schiller has no doubts that was the reason behind the IOC's overwhelming rejection of Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics, voting them out first of the four cities on the short-list.

He said: "It gets back to the disconnect between the European voters and some of the others.

"Some of the newer members of the IOC come from Muslim countries, or countries that have a large Muslim population, and I think that adds to it."

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