Men’s Division 2 Water Polo Tournament I Two finals berths up for grabs

With the holiday season almost upon us, the first phase of international men’s water polo for 2025 gets underway with the Division II series for the World Aquatics World Cup in Istanbul.

This event was postponed in 2024 because of the European Championships, the Doha World Aquatics Championships and the Paris Olympics — seven months of action-packed water polo that left no room for the World Cup.

With the Covid pandemic disrupting proceedings for some years, we are back to normal in 2025 with just the two major world events scheduled — the World Aquatics World Cup and World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.

Taking part in the Division II four-day event in Istanbul, starting on Wednesday, 18 December, are 12 men’s teams with Great Britain, Portugal, Malta, Singapore, Turkiye , Ukraine and Slovakia fronting at this level for the first time. They join, Germany, Netherlands, Iran, South Africa and China who have all tasted World Cup experience.

They are competing for a top-two finish with those teams joining six from the Division I tournament in Novi Sad, Serbia, on 7-12 January at the April finals at a venue to be decided.

There are four groups of three with two group matches on the first day and one on the second, followed by the third team in each group having a crossover encounter — virtual semifinals for the bottom four. Day three will start with the bottom four having classification matches 9-12, followed by quarterfinals. Day four will start with semifinals and in the late afternoon-evening, classification matches 1-8.

Groupings

Group A: Iran, Ukraine, South Africa
Group B: Great Britain, Portugal, China
Group C: Malta, Singapore, Germany
Group D: Netherlands, Turkiye, Slovakia

History

The Federal Republic of Germany and the combined German  state has competed at nine World Cups — 1979 (5^th), 1983 (2^nd), 1985 (1^st), 1987 (3^rd), 1989 (5^th), 1991 (8^th), 1993 (6^th), 2018 (4^th), 2023 (8^th).

Netherlands played in 1983 (6^th), 1985 (6^th) and 1995 (7^th).

South Africa competed in 2014 (8^th) and 2018 (8^th).

Iran finished eighth in 2010.

Kazakhstan was sixth in 2014.

China finished seventh in 2010.

New Rules

For men’s water polo there are changes with the new rules just ratified last weekend. They will be played in Istanbul for the first time. The women have been using some of them.

• Field of Play (FOP): The overall Field of Play for men’s and women’s matches will be 25.60m x 20.0m. 

• Team Composition: The team start list shall consist of a maximum of 14 eligible players, composed of twelve field players and two goalkeepers. 

• Possession Time: The maximum ball possession time within a men’s match will be 25 seconds; the maximum ball possession time within a women’s match will be 30 seconds. 

• Coaches’ Challenge: Each coach is entitled to challenge one referee-initiated call per match, so long as the challenge involves the following: 

1. A referee’s perceived failure to call a violent action; or

2. A referee's perceived failure to call a penalty foul; or

3. A referee’s perceived incorrect call of a penalty foul; or

4. Field of play situations not reviewed by VAR technology. 

• Goalkeeper: A team must start the match with seven players, one of whom must be a goalkeeper. Following the start of the match, a team is not obliged to have a goalkeeper in the water and may instead have seven field players. 

Day 1 Programme

09:00. Match 1. South Africa v Iran
10:30. Match 2. Portugal v Great Britain
12:00. Match 3. Malta v Singapore
13:30. Match 4. Netherlands v Slovakia
16:00. Match 5. Iran v Ukraine
17:30. Match 6. Great Britain v China
19.00. Match 8. Slovakia v Turkiye
20:30. Match 7. Singapore v Germany