LAUSANNE — The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced 19 of the 20 men’s baseball programmes, which will participate in the WBSC Premier12™ 2027. In its fourth edition, the WBSC Premier12 will feature a new format with the top-12 teams in the WBSC Men’s Baseball World Ranking (as at 31 December, 2025) joined by four teams from two qualification tournaments to be played in 2026.
Japan, Chinese Taipei, USA, Korea, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Panama, the Netherlands, Cuba, Australia, and the Dominican Republic are the top 12 teams in the WBSC Men’s Baseball World Ranking. They will participate in the WBSC Premier12 2027 Opening Round.
Four more teams will earn their spot in the tournament through the 2026 Qualifiers.
The WBSC announced seven of eight teams participating in the qualifying tournaments, which will determine the four teams: World No. 13 Colombia, No. 14 Italy, No. 15 Czechia, No. 16 Nicaragua, No. 17 China, No. 18 Germany and No. 19 Great Britain. The 20th team will be either World No. 20 Canada or a Wild Card if the host of the second qualification tournament is ranked outside the Top 20.
“Congratulations to the teams who will participate in the WBSC Premier12 2027. The WBSC Premier12 has firmly established itself as our flagship tournament and the 2027 edition will raise the bar even further with an expanded and highly competitive format,” WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari said. “Automatically qualifying the top 12 teams in the World Ranking rewards long-term excellence, while the qualification tournaments give emerging and ambitious programmes a clear pathway to compete on the sport’s global stage. We are excited to see the world’s best teams battle for a place in Premier12 2027 and to continue growing baseball worldwide.”
The new format introduced in October 2024 stated that “the top 12 teams in the WBSC Men’s Baseball World Ranking at the end of 2025 will qualify directly for the 2027 Group Stage, while the teams ranked 13-18 and two Wild Cards will play the Premier12 Qualifiers to define the other four participants in the Group Stage.”
China will host one of two four-team Qualification Tournaments at the International Baseball and Softball Centre in Zhongshan (Guangdong Province), from November 26 to 29, 2026.
The WBSC will announce the host of the second qualification tournament soon.