Is it feasible after US sanctions?

Baseball in Venezuela, a prolific exporter of Major League baseball players, is at a crossroads: is the 2019-2020 championship viable after Major League Baseball (MLB) banned its players from competing in the South American country?

The MLB decision after the US financial sanctions against the government of Nicolás Maduro filled the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVBP) with uncertainty, which on Thursday announced the resignation of its president, Juan José Ávila, without successor to the view.

Ávila alleged "family reasons" in a statement that omitted references to the MLB.

However, the Confederation of the Caribbean, which groups the leagues of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Venezuela, expressed a day before the "deep concern" of the leader around the tournament, beginning scheduled for October 18.

The MLB froze the usual transfers of baseball players from major leagues and their subsidiaries to play in the LVBP, excluding Venezuela from the Winter League Agreement, an agreement that regulates relations between the MLB and the Caribbean leagues.

The backs were protected while the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury responds to a request to clarify whether the presence of those players in the LVBP would violate the White House sanctions, which block negotiations of US citizens and companies with The Chavista government.

The state oil company PDVSA, sanctioned by Washington, is the dominant sponsor of the LVBP.

The ban has a huge impact: 96 Venezuelans have played in 2019 in the majors and more than 1,800 in the minor leagues.

– "You have no control" –

The Chavista government turns the ball – national time of Venezuelans – into a matter of state. "Here there is going to be baseball, so we have to play … We recommend that the owners of equipment be invented," said Diosdado Cabello, president of the official Constituent Assembly.

The LVBP, in its worst crisis since its first season in 1946, announced on August 27 steps to lift "any obstacle" towards the championship; but the matter – the sources of the equipment are recognized by the AFP – escapes their hands.

"You have no control," said the director of a club, asking to reserve his name.

The situation forces to reformulate payroll of the eight clubs of Venezuela, six private (Cardinals of Lara, Lions of Caracas, Sharks of La Guaira, Braves of Margarita, Caribes of Anzoátegui and Águilas del Zulia) and two dependents of state foundations (Navegantes del Magellan and Tigers of Aragua).

"Players per se, exist", although "lower level", added the manager.

Import plans for foreign reinforcements collapse, with technicians in the equation.

– "I can play?" –

Theoretically, payrolls can include players from US MLB independent leagues or leagues from other countries, but there is fear.

The former Venezuelan Guillermo Moscoso is not clear about the scope of the sanctions despite being outside the MLB system since 2013. "I am Venezuelan with American citizenship … I have the right to play … Or will they have any sanctions? ? "he asked on social networks.

And their questions echo.

"Those same questions can be asked by television channels, sponsors and suppliers … There are edges beyond sports," baseball journalist Efraín Savarce told AFP.

– Acid cocktail –

LVBP's ball supplier, Rawlings, is American. Private television companies that broadcast the games also have links with North American companies.

An acid cocktail is thus completed in a country with five years of economic recession, hyperinflation and basic services such as electricity collapsed. Even before the MLB ban, the season had been reduced to 49 games per team in a regular round since 63 coming.

The playoff format, with three series at the best of seven games to be champion, did remain.

The LVBP had announced a major cut, with a regular phase of 42 games per club that would start on November 5; but it advanced the inauguration by requirement of the Ministry of Sport.