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TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) has announced that Taipei will host the preliminary rounds of the Premier 12 baseball championship to be held Nov. 10–24, 2024, per Liberty Times.
The WBSC is the governing body of international baseball and softball competition and formerly went by the name of the International Baseball Federation (IBAF). Premier 12 will draw upon the WBSC’s 12 highest-ranked national teams in the world, making the tournament the most important professional-level baseball competition in 2024.
Current WBSC rankings are as follows: Japan, U.S., Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Venezuela, Netherlands, Cuba, Australia, Dominican Republic, Panama, Italy.
The WBSC (at the time operating as the IBAF) previously hosted the Baseball World Cup, which featured amateur and minor league players on a biennial schedule. The tournament was later scrapped as U.S. Major League Baseball permitted its players to compete for national teams in the World Baseball Classic beginning in 2006 and held every four years.
Premier 12 was created to be WBSC’s flagship event and is to be held every four years to fill gaps in the international baseball calendar and serve as a potential qualifier event for the Olympics. Baseball was included in the 2020 Summer Olympics and is expected to be part of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Taipei has been chosen as the location to host preliminary Group B play involving six teams, while Group A play will be held in the Americas. After a round-robin tournament involving competition amongst all group members, the top two teams will be invited to participate in a Super Round and Medal Round to be held at the Tokyo Dome.
“It is an honor to welcome all the participating teams and host this long-awaited baseball event. We will definitely organize this great baseball event that the world is looking forward to with the best preparation. CTBA will cooperate with CPBL (the Chinese Professional Baseball League) to field the strongest team and compete with the world’s first-class teams,” according to Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA) President Jeffery Koo, per a WBSC press release.