WHITEHORSE, Canada -- The World Baseball Softball Confederation today announced the pools and official tournament schedule of the 2017 WBSC Men's Softball World Championship taking place in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada from 7-16 July.

The fifteenth edition of the men's flagship softball event will showcase more than 80 games -- 64 games taking place in the round robin over the first seven days, followed by three days of playoff action.  

The participating nations in the WBSC Men's Softball Championship represent a global reach that spans across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania.

Nations will be divided into two pools to compete in a challenging round-robin, with the top four finishers from each pool advancing to the double page playoff round. The remaining teams will compete in the placement round.

Pool A: No. 3 Argentina, No. 5 Australia, No. 4 Canada, No. 11 Dominican Republic, Hong Kong, India, No. 14 South Africa, and No. 6 USA

Pool B: No. 19 Botswana, No. 8 Czech Republic, No. 13 Denmark, No. 10 Great Britain, No. 20 Indonesia, No. 2 Japan, No. 1 New Zealand, Turkey, and No. 7 Venezuela

All 17 participating National Teams will compete on Opening Day, with action opening on Friday, 7 July at 09:00 local time with Great Britain taking on Botswana.

(See Official Schedule)

On Friday, 7 July, opening ceremonies will begin at 18:00 at the main competition field, which will be followed by Canada meeting South Africa in front of the home crowd.

A key contest will be the rematch of the 2015 bronze medal game between New Zealand and Venezuela, when they face each other on 11 July at 15:00 pm.

The gold medal game will take center stage on 16 July at 16:00, and will be preceded by the bronze medal match at 13:00.

Both India and Turkey will be making their men's world championship debuts. India's first action will be versus Australia while Turkey's first opponent will be New Zealand.

Canada is aiming to repeat as world champions following their gold medal performance on their home turf in 2015 by defeating New Zealand 10-5; Venezuela earned the bronze medal.

For information on tickets, visit 2017mensworldsoftball.com.

-WBSC press release-