'Ineligible Player Participation' Korea Little Baseball Forfeits Match... "Different Interpretation from World Federation"

The Korean Little League baseball team for players aged 12 and under was stripped of its 'Little League World Series main tournament qualification' due to the participation of ineligible players.

The Taiwan Gui-Shan Little League team advancing to the 2023 Little League World Series finals / Photo by Little League World Series Official Website

On the 1st, the 2023 Little League World Series organizing committee announced on the 30th of last month that the Taiwan Gui-Shan Little League team will advance to the main tournament of the Little League World Series as the Asia-Pacific regional qualifier winner.

The committee also explained the reason why the Korean representative Namseoul A team, which won the Asia-Pacific regional qualifier, was stripped of its main tournament qualification. The Namseoul A team defeated the Taiwan representative Gui-Shan 2-1 in the regional qualifier final held at Hwaseong Dream Park on the 26th of last month.

The organizing committee stated, "There were two ineligible players on the Korean Little League representative Namseoul A team," and "It was confirmed that two players who participated in the Korean qualifier as members of the Namseoul B team competed for the Namseoul A team in the Asia-Pacific regional qualifier." Because of this, all match results of the Namseoul A team in the Asia-Pacific qualifier were corrected to '0-6 losses.'

The Little League World Series does not form separate national representative teams; instead, 'club teams' that pass the qualifiers represent their countries. The Namseoul team participated in the domestic qualifier divided into A and B teams, and when injured players occurred on the A team that advanced to the Asia-Pacific regional qualifier, two players were drafted from the B team.

The Korea Little League Federation stated, "We judged there was no problem based on the World Little League Federation (Little League World Series organizing committee) regulation that a player can represent a region if they meet either the school or residence requirement," and added, "While respecting the World Little League Federation's intent, we expressed regret and hope for flexible guidelines that understand regional specificities, as it is an organization managing the world."

They continued, "We apologize for causing concern," and added, "We will do our best to comfort the young players and their families who were denied advancement to the World Series and will devote efforts to prevent recurrence."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.