(ATR) The World Baseball and Softball Confederation confirmed on Tuesday that the postponed Olympic Qualifying Tournament of the Americas will be held in Florida, United States, in the first half of June.
At the beginning of February Around the Rings had unofficially announced that a Florida city would host this Olympic baseball qualifier from June 6 to 10.
In a statement, the WBSC clarified that the exact dates and scenarios are "to be confirmed."
"The final announcement will be made next week," a WBSC source told ATR, pending the consideration of the U.S. baseball authorities.
Apparently the town and the stadiums would be venues that are currently hosting spring training for Major League Baseball clubs in Florida. Opening Day for the MLB season will be April 1.
WBSC ratified that the Final Classification with the sixth and last ticket to the Tokyo Olympic tournament will be held from June 16 to 20 in Taichung, Chinese Taipei. This event was postponed twice in 2020.
In August 2018, the WBSC organized the Baseball Women's World Cup in Viera, Florida, but for the Pre-Olympic this venue seems ruled out due to its size.
It remains to be clarified if Major League Baseball will maintain that only players from each club's "list of 40" will be allowed to represent their countries in the two pending pre-Olympic tournaments and in the Olympic tournament in Tokyo.
The V World Classic, organized by MLB, and whose finals would have been held in Miami this month, was suspended due to the epidemiological situation.
The Americas Olympic qualifier should have been held in Arizona, first in March and then in June 2020, but on both occasions the coronavirus pandemic forced it to be postponed.
ATR also learned that the president of the WBSC, the Italian Riccardo Fraccari, tested positive for COVID-19 at the end of last year. He did not have symptoms before and during the quarantine period that he had to fulfill in Switzerland.
In statements Fraccari assured the that the news of the confirmation of these two qualifiers should create"great enthusiasm".
"I would like to express the deepest appreciation of the WBSC to our hosts in Florida and Taichung, who will provide us with the necessary venues to carry out these important international competitions in a safe and successful manner," he said.
"Good luck to all the teams and athletes on the way to the Tokyo Olympics. The time has come to play ball," he said.
Eight qualifying teams will travel to Florida in search of a single ticket to Tokyo.
In group A will be the United States, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Nicaragua.
In Group B: Cuba, Venezuela, Canada and Colombia.
The top two from each group will advance to a Super Round, where each team will play two games. The results of the matches in the first knockout round will carry over to the Super Round classification.
The winner of this final phase will be the fifth team into the Tokyo Olympic tournament, joining hosts Japan, South Korea, Israel and Mexico.
The teams in second and third place will qualify for the World Pre-Olympic where they will face Chinese Taipei, Australia, the Netherlands, and China.
To date in Florida there have been no known major shocks due to cases of coronavirus during the days of spring training and the exhibition games of major league clubs. Florida has hosted "bubbles" for both the NBA and Major League Soccer (MLS) and was the site of the latest edition of the Super Bowl on February 7.
The massive vaccination process that is taking place in the United States makes it possible to advance health and safety conditions for the Pre-Olympic tournament that are very different from a year ago.
Due to this, Dr. Anthony Fauci, in charge of the pandemic in the American Union, has proposed that teams can open the doors to fans for the 2021 Major League Baseball season, something that will surely be repeated in June with the continental tournament in Florida.
Homepage photo: WBSC
Written and reported by Miguel Hernandez
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