FINA Water Polo World League

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The FINA Water Polo World League was begun in 2002 to capitalize on increased worldwide popularity of water polo created by recent Olympic games, especially in Europe, North America and Australia. Competition between the world’s best male players began on national teams in a season format with a prize of half a million dollars at the league championship. FINA added a women’s league in 2004 based on growing interest in the sport since the addition of women's water polo at last two Olympics.

The game venues have television requirements to bring the sport to the biggest audience possible. Rule changes were made to provide more spectacular play and yield higher scores. Matches consist of four nine-minute quarters, with a ten-minute half-time break. Tie games are decided by an immediate penalty shootout.

1 League play
2 Championship tournament
3 Tournament Winners
- 3.1 Men
- 3.2 Women
4 External links
5 Notes

[edit] League play

League play consists of a home and away series with two official games played against each nation, in each nation. The teams are distributed in 4 groups of 3 or 4 teams each, formed on a geographical basis. The groups are based on the rankings from the prior year's FINA Water Polo World League and FINA World Championships.

Men: Group A: Australia, China, France, Japan; Group B: USA, Brasil, Canada, Venezuela; Group C: Serbia & Montenegro, Croatia, Russia, Spain; Group D: Germany, Greece, Romania, Italy
Women: Group A: Australia, New Zealand, China; Group B: USA, Brasil, Canada, Venezuela; Group C: Germany, Greece, Spain, Netherlands; Group D: Russia, Italy, France

[edit] Championship tournament

The World League Tournament begins in July each year with a preliminary two round tournament for each group held in various cities. The three top teams from each Group then advance to two semifinal tournaments (A vs. B and C vs. D), and then the first three teams qualified in each semifinal will move on to the Super Finals in August. The host country team for the semifinals and Super Finals automatically qualifies. Prize money totaling $100,000 is awarded with the team finishing first at the Super Finals. Second place receives $70,000, with third place getting $50,000.

USA Water Polo hosted Group A & B women's and men's 2006 FINA World League semifinals at the US Water Polo National Training Center in Los Alamito, California in July 2006. Portugalete, Spain hosted the men's Group C & D semifinal and Kirishi, Russia the women's. The Super Final was played in Athens, Greece, from July 26-31 (women) and from August 2-6, 2006 (men).

2006 final rankings: Women - 1. United States (2nd gold in 3 years), 2. Italy, 3. Russia, 4. Australia, 5. Netherlands, 6. Canada; Men - 1. Serbia and Montenegro (2nd consecutive gold), 2. Spain, 3. Greece, 4. Australia, 5. United States, 6. France

[edit] Tournament Winners

[edit] Men

Year and City	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2002 Patras, Greece	Russia	Spain	Hungary
2003 New York	Hungary	Italy	United States
2004 Long Beach, California	Hungary	Serbia and Montenegro	Greece
2005 Belgrade, Serbia	Serbia and Montenegro	Hungary	Germany
2006 Athens	Serbia and Montenegro	Spain	Greece

[edit] Women

Year and City	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2004 Long Beach, California	United States	Hungary	Italy
2005 Kirishi, Russia	Greece	Russia	Australia
2006 Athens	United States	Italy	Russia