The WBSC Executive Board today decided to postpone the inaugural Baseball5 World Cups to June 2021.
The Baseball5 World Cup and the Youth Baseball5 World Cup were originally scheduled to launch in December 2020. The hosting rights of both events have been granted to Mexico.
WBSC announced in January 2020 the continental quota for both events:
- Africa: 2 teams
- Americas: 3 teams
- Asia: 3 teams
- Europe: 2 teams
- Oceania: 1 team
- Host nation: 1 team
Europe has been so far the only continent to complete the qualification process for the open category. France and Lithuania qualified for the Baseball5 World Cup through the first European Baseball5 Championship, played in February in Lithuania.
The hosts Mexico are qualified for both events.
Qualifiers for the Youth Baseball5 World Cup are still to be held across all Continent Associations.
Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, difficulties of organizing the qualifying events have increased dramatically. The Asia and the Americas Continental Associations have postponed their qualifiers until June/July. The WBSC Executive Board weighed various factors in postponing the WBSC World Cups to 2021.
The inaugural WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup is expected to serve as a qualifying event to the 2022 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal.
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