FINA Water Polo World League

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The FINA Water Polo World League began 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 introduction of women's water polo to the Olympic Games in 2000.

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.

Contents 1 League Play 2 Championship Tournament 3 History 3.1 Men's Winners 3.2 Men's Medal Count 3.3 Women's Winners 3.4 Women's Medal Count 4 References 5 External link 6 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.

[edit] History

[edit] Men's Winners

FINA MEN'S WATER POLO WORLD LEAGUE
Year	Host	Winner	Runner-up	3rd Place
2002 Details	Patras, Greece	Russia	Spain	Hungary
2003 Details	New York, United States	Hungary	Italy	United States
2004 Details	Long Beach, United States	Hungary	Serbia and Montenegro	Greece
2005 Details	Belgrade, Serbia	Serbia and Montenegro	Hungary	Germany
2006 Details	Athens, Greece	Serbia and Montenegro	Spain	Greece
2007 Details	Berlin, Germany	Serbia	Hungary	Australia
2008 Details	Genova, Italy	—	—	—

[edit] Men's Medal Count

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Hungary	2	2	1	5
2	Serbia*	3	1	0	4
3	Russia	1	0	0	1
4	Spain	0	2	0	2
5	Italy	0	1	0	1
6	Greece	0	0	2	2
7	Germany	0	0	1	1
7	United States	0	0	1	1
7	Australia	0	0	1	1

* includes matches played with Montenegro

[edit] Women's Winners

FINA WOMEN'S WATER POLO WORLD LEAGUE
Year	Host	Winner	Runner-up	3rd Place
2004 Details	Long Beach, United States	United States	Hungary	Italy
2005 Details	Kirishi, Russia	Greece	Russia	Australia
2006 Details	Athens, Greece	United States	Italy	Russia
2007 Details	Montréal, Canada	United States	Australia	Greece
2008 Details	Santa Cruz, Spain	—	—	—

[edit] Women's Medal Count

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	3	0	0	3
2	Greece	1	0	1	2
3	Australia	0	1	1	2
3	Italy	0	1	1	2
3	Russia	0	1	1	2
6	Hungary	0	1	0	1

[edit] References

• FINA

[edit] External link

• FINA water polo official site

[edit] Notes