
United States of America headlines a powerful line-up of teams in the Division One segment of the 2025 World Aquatics Women’s Water Polo World Cup as eight teams are shooting for six qualifying berths in the top-eight finals series this coming April.
With little time to recover from the festive season, the world’s best women’s water polo teams are back in action for the Division I series of the World Aquatics World Cup in Alexandroupolis, Greece. The Division II series was played late in December with China and Japan winning through to April’s finals series. The top six teams in Alexandroupolis will qualify for the finals.
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.
Who Are The Teams?
Taking part in the Division I six-day event in Alexandroupolis, starting on Tuesday, 14 January, are eight women’s teams with triple Olympic champion and current world champion USA heading the bill in a tough Group A with Olympic champion Spain, 2024 world silver medallist Hungary and world No 7 Greece.
Group B consists of Paris Olympics silver medallist Australia, 2023 world champion Netherlands, world No 6 Italy and Israel, 10th at the 2023 World Championships.
Competition Format
There are two groups of four with group matches on the first three days followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals and classification rounds.
Groupings
Group A: United States of America, Spain, Hungary, Greece
Group B: Italy, Australia, Netherlands, Israel
History
Netherlands is the supreme nation when it comes to the World Cup, winning eight crowns, losing four finals and grabbing one bronze. Its latest gold was in 1999.
United States of America ranks second with five titles, five silver medals and one bronze. More importantly, USA has won the last four events after winning the inaugural event way back in 1979.
Australia has topped the dais three times, lost three finals and taken home five bronze medals for the same total medal count as USA. Victories came in 1984, 1995 and 2006.
Hungary is the only other nation here who has a crown, winning in Perth, Australia in 2002, losing the 1988 final and winning three bronzes.
Italy took out the silver medal in 2006 and has two bronzes, the latest in 1999.
Spain has a pair of bronzes from 2014 and 2023.
Greece has yet to win a medal at this level and was fifth in 2023 — its best result to date.
Israel made its debut in 2023, finishing in seventh position, with victory over New Zealand.
New Rules
New rules were ratified midway through last month and played in Istanbul at the Division II tournament.
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:
a) A referee’s perceived failure to call a violent action; or
b) A referee's perceived failure to call a penalty foul; or
c) A referee’s perceived incorrect call of a penalty foul; or
d) 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.
Summary
As with any Olympiad, athletes retire at the peak and the following quadrennial sees many newcomers made the team rosters. Just who has retired and how the teams are reshaping will be seen in Greece as younger players get a chance to impress. The World Cup is pivotal in learning how these youngsters perform at the highest level ahead of the July World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
Day 1 Programme
15:00. Match 1. Group A. United States of America v Spain
17:00. Match 2. Group B. Israel v Italy
19:00. Match 3. Group A. Greece v Hungary
21:00. Match 4. Group B. Netherlands v Australia