3/02/2023
The historic tournament, to be played in Ireland, Spain and Italy this summer, will be the first to be played under the new Two-Stage format.
The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today released the new official promotional video for the XVII WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup, to be played in Ireland, Spain and Italy in July. The video was premiered in the WBSC Europe Congress this past weekend.
The new promotional video, named “The World Will Be In Europe”, features some of the iconic moments and biggest highlights from the 2018 Women’s Softball World Cup, the 2019 Olympic Qualifiers and The World Games 2022. The title of the video headlines the return of the biggest women’s softball international event to European soil after nine years. It will be the second Women’s Softball World Cup to be played on the Old Continent.
Under the new Two-Stage format, an expanded number of 18 teams representing the five Olympic continents will play across three groups of six teams. The top two teams from each group of the Group Stage, plus two wild cards, will advance to the eight-team World Cup Finals, to be hosted in Italy in 2024.
The tournament will start with Group A in Dublin, Ireland, from 11-15 July; followed by Group B in Valencia, Spain, from 18-22 July; and Group C in Castions di Strada & Buttrio, Italy, from 22-26 July. The groups are as follows:
- Group A: No. 1 USA, No. 9 Australia, No. 16 Great Britain, No. 17 Ireland (host), Africa 2 and Asia 3.
- Group B: No. 5 Puerto Rico, No. 10 Netherlands, No. 11 Spain (host), No. 27 Cuba, Africa 1 and Asia 2.
- Group C: No. 4 Canada, No. 8 Italy (host), No. 22 Venezuela, No. 28 New Zealand, Asia 1 and a wild card.
The competition format of the Group Stage and the Finals will be announced at a later stage.