Press Release courtesy of FINA
The European preliminary rounds of the FINA Men’s Water Polo World League 2018 kick-off tomorrow on Tuesday November 14 across various European cities.
The groups’ composition of the European tournament unfolds as follow:
GROUP A: ROU, MNE, SRB
GROUP B: CRO, GER, RUS
GROUP C: ESP, HUN, NED
Romania will first play Serbia in Zrenjainin (SRB), Croatia will welcome the Russians in Zadar (CRO) and the Netherlands will face the Spanish, who didn’t play in last year’s World League, in Malaga (ESP).
The European preliminaries will be played in six rounds, following this calendar from November 2017 to April 2018:
| Round | Date | Group A | Group B | Group C |
| #1 | 14/11/2017 | SRBvsROU | CROvsRUS | ESPvsNED |
| #2 | 12/12/2017 | SRBvsMNE | GERvsRUS | NEDvsHUN |
| #3 | 16/01/2018 | MNEvsROU | GERvsCRO | HUNvsESP |
| #4 | 13/02/2018 | ROUvsSRB | RUSvsCRO | NEDvsESP |
| #5 | 20/03/2018 | MNEvsSRB | RUSvsGER* | HUNvsNED |
| #6 | 10/04/2018 | ROUvsMNE | CROvsGER | ESPvsHUN |
*to be played on March 6, 2018
After the conclusion of these six rounds, the four best teams will be qualified for the Super Final to be held from June 18–23 2018. They will be then joined by four other teams selected from the Intercontinental Tournaments.
Check out the 2018 Rules & Regulations
Team Serbia, who are the current Olympic title holders, have grabbed the World League title consecutively since 2013, while Italy and Croatia secured the silver and bronze medals respectively in 2017.
Croatia won the World Championships tournament, ahead of Hungary and Serbia, last summer in Budapest (HUN).
Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA)
The Fédération Internationale de Natation, founded in 1908, is the governing body for aquatics worldwide. FINA’s five discipline Swimming, Open Water Swimming, Diving, Water Polo and Synchronised Swimming – are all included in the Olympic programme. High Diving made its first appearance in FINA events at the 2013 FINA World Championships. FINA counts 208 affiliated National Federations on the five continents and has its headquarters in Lausanne (SUI).