WHAT: The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) will conduct live draws on Wednesday, 10 July, to determine the groups and schedule of the WBSC Softball Europe/Africa Qualifier and the WBSC Softball Asia/Oceania Qualifier, Qualification Events for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad Tokyo 2020.
Members of the media and fans worldwide can watch the live-stream of the draws on the official WBSC YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/wbsc.
NB: Game times and home/visitor assignments will be revealed at wbsc.org following the draw.
WHEN: Wednesday, 10 July at 10 a.m. CEST
WHO: Tommy Velazquez, Chairman of WBSC Softball Division
NOTES:
The WBSC Softball Europe/Africa Qualifier will be played in Utrecht, Netherlands, from 23-27 July, with the participation of world No. 9 Italy, No. 10 Netherlands, No. 12 Great Britain, No. 15 Czech Republic, No. 26 France No. 28 South Africa, No. 35 Spain and No. 43 Botswana. The eight nations will be drawn into two groups. Host team Netherlands and the top-ranked team from Europe, Italy, will be seeded as A1 and B1 respectively. The four remaining European nations will be split into the two groups (A2, A3, B2 and B3), while a draw will determine which nation will be A4 or B4 between South Africa and Botswana.
The WBSC Softball Asia/Oceania Qualifier will be held in Shanghai, China, from 24-28 September. World No. 6 Chinese Taipei, No. 7 Australia, No. 8 China, No. 11 New Zealand, No. 13 Philippines, No. 23 Korea, No. 37 Indonesia and No. 42 Hong Kong will battle for a spot in the Olympic Games. Host team China and the top-ranked team from Asia, Chinese Taipei, will be seeded as A1 and B1 respectively. The four remaining Asian nations will be split into the two groups (A2, A3, B2 and B3), while a draw will determine which nation will be A4 or B4 between Australia and New Zealand.
The winners of the WBSC qualifiers will advance to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Future Draws – 20 November: The draw for the Americas Baseball and the last Intercontinental Baseball Qualifier will be staged during the WBSC Congress in Osaka, Japan.
The schedule of the single round-robin European Baseball Qualifier will be determined by seed.
