If the sixth edition of the World Baseball Classic It would start tomorrow, Cuba would not be among the participants. Despite playing in all the previous tournaments, being runner -up of 2006, a semifinalist of 2023 and, there Play Ball! In March 2026.
The reason for this potential absence, unfortunately, would not have to do with any sports matter, but with political issues and tensions that, from one edge and another, have affected the destinations of the Caribbean Atlético Universe.
“The organizers of the event have stated that, despite requesting it with sufficient time in advance, they do not have the approval of the US government that enables the participation of Cuba,” said the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCBS) in a release broadcast this Friday night.
FCBS protest treatment towards the World Classic
The organizers still did not receive the approval of the US government that enables Cuba’s participation in that event. #Baseball #Beisbolcubanohttps://t.co/8Sn9qg3icb pic.twitter.com/wkr9fn7R8m– Jit Cuban sport (@jit_digital) SEPTEMBER 6, 2025
“Our country has been the victim of an unfair, unequal and politically motivated treatment, which is incompatible with the principles of respect, equity and transparency that must govern any international competition. Cuba does not ask for privileges. Cuban players won, in the field, in the field, their right to participate in the VI World Baseball Classic,” added the FCBS protest note.
So far, MLB has not extended the official invitation to Cuba to compete in the main international event of balls and strikes, leaving out to the island of the process of delivery of the preliminary payrolls of 50 players, whose deadline was last Monday, September 1.
This, valid to clarify it, is not the responsibility of Major Leagues, an entity that has openly bet on integration and has always shown interest in maintaining links with Cuba in the sports field. The evidences are powerful: two MLB franchises visited Havana in the last 26 years and in 2018 an agreement was signed that regularized the flow of Antillean players heading to the United States, subsequently canceled by the administration of Donald Trump.
In the current case, the major leagues have fulfilled in a timely manner with the established mechanisms to obtain the authorization of Cuba, which requires a special license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Without this approval, by much disposition and good will that MLB has, it is tied hand and foot and cannot process the Antillean participation in the tournament.
A known path
“The FCBS denounces the application of a discriminatory policy against Cuban players. US regulations that prevent the assistance of our athletes in this event are contrary to sports spirit. The entire process has been characterized by unjustified delay that generates uncertainties and affects the technical process of formation of our payroll.”
In this way, the Cuban baseball authorities protested the current situation that the island lives in relation to the sixth world classic. At this time, the Federation faces the panorama with suspicion, concern and without guarantees that the course of short -term events will change.
Cuba accuses the US of hindering his participation in the World Baseball Classic
However, this is not an unknown scenario. Three years ago, months before the fifth World Classic, MLB also did not receive the OFAC license for Caribbean participation in time. That authorization was issued in December 2022, long after the rest of the teams delivered their preliminary payrolls.
For this reason, Cuba had to follow a different road map, moving in other deadlines, until finally everything was resolved and competed. This does not mean that delay and differentiated treatment are a correct practice, nor can it be guaranteed now that the “happy end” of history is repeated, because neither the actors nor the political circumstances in the United States are the same as 2022.
The ofac’s license is just the first step
Regardless of MLB obtaining the OFAC’s license for Cuban participation in the sixth world baseball classic, this would be only the first of several bureaucratic procedures that must be overcome to specify the presence of the island in the event.
Subsequently, the study of the Antillean payroll would come, with the consequent expedition of individual licenses to players residing in the United States and are among the candidates to represent Cuba. In addition, the corresponding permits of major league organizations would be necessary to “free” their players who have accepted the Antillana call.
This, until now, has been the most expedited and not so controversial process by MLB, but it cannot be ruled out that there are surprises and new inconveniences along the way.
Once the roster was defined, the request for visasthat for the classic to come, with almost total security, a topic of discord. Cuba is anchored in Group A of the event with Puerto Rico, Canada, Panama and Colombia, with whom it will compete in the mythical Hiram Bithorn Park in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital.
This means that, from the first phase, they will have to request visas from the United States, something that had not happened in the last four editions. In 2009, Cuba began his walked in Mexico and then, in 2013, 2017 and 2023, he had always started in Asia. Now the panorama has changed …
Although, in the case of the classic, visas to play in the United States have always been obtained, the most recent history of negative athletes do not invite optimism.
USA again deny visas to a Cuban team and the Inder begins to doubt going to Los Angeles 2028
Last July, for example, the US authorities denied the visa to the seven members of the technical group of the Cuban team that had to participate in the qualifying tournament to the World Series of the small women’s softball leagues, 9-10 years category, based in Puerto Rico.
A few days before, at the end of June, the female volleyball squad of the island that would intervene in the Final Four in Northca in Puerto Rico did not receive the visas. Only in 2025, there are already several Caribbean delegations that have been affected by the same matter:
* The representation to the World Master’s Athletics Championship, played in Gainesville, Florida.
* The basketball team, eliminated from the FIBA Americanup, unable to play the last qualifying game programmed in Puerto Rico.
* The baseball selection that would participate in the Antillean Cup that was held in the Puerto Rican town of Aguadilla.
The crossroads of the Cuban Basketball Team, without visa for Puerto Rico
If we are going only a little further back, in September 2023 the triplista Leyanis Pérez and Liadagmis Povea and the Salvador Luis Enrique Zayas They could not compete in the final of the diamond league made in Eugene. That same year, in August, the women’s volleyball team also did not intervene the Pan American Cup of Puerto Rico, in which the classification to the continental multisport event of Santiago de Chile was at stake.
Cuba is one of the countries whose citizens have the severely restricted entry to the United States as a result of a Trump administration measure. Among the exceptions to that decision, in force since June, they are told – at least in theory – that of athletes and members of sports teams traveling to US territory for important sporting events. We will see what happens in the case of the World Classic.
