FINA Water Polo World League
Due to the increase in popularity of water sports in North America, Europe and Australia in general, and Water Polo specifically, Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) created the FINA Water Polo World League in 2002. Since then FINA had added a league for women as well, in 2004.
FINA has tried to maximize the impact of the game at the world stage by introducing several measures to make sure the biggest possible audience is reached through the water polo events. The venues that host the events have very strict television guidelines to follow and even the rules have been standardized in such a way that the game becomes more interesting for people to watch.
The game is divided into four quarters of nine minutes each with a ten minute break at half time in order to rest players. If a game ends with the scores level, then the match heads to a penalty shoot-out straight away, this is one of the measures introduced to make the game more exciting for spectators.
The tournament begins with the preliminary stage and then moves on to the Super Final tournament played in July of each year. This time around in the men's tournament, the eight teams that have made it to the Super Finals have been divided into two groups. Group 1 consists of Montenegro, China, Spain and the United States. Group 2 has Australia, Serbia, Croatia and South Africa.
This year the Super Finals will be played in Nis, Serbia. The tournament has generated a great deal of interest worldwide, something which is represented by the fact that countries from all over the world have participated.
This is the ninth edition of the tournament and so far the hosts Serbia have been the most successful team, taking the gold medal home on four occasions. Although the first two of these came when the country was still known as Serbia & Montenegro, the last two have come since then. This year, once again, the Serbians are favourites to take the gold, closely followed by Montenegro. Between them, Serbia and Montenegro have won the gold medal five years in a row, which shows the strength of these two teams.
Last year it was Montenegro who took the gold medal, beating Spain in the final which was played in Podgorico, Montenegro. Croatia finished with the bronze medal and the Serbians did not manage to get anything at all from the tournament which was shocking given their past performances.
This year the Serbs will be looking to put the record right and take the gold medal for the fifth time. They have a tough group to deal with, though, since the bronze medallists from last time, Croatia are there along with Australia, who are an emerging nation in the sport and will be looking to cause an upset.
In the women's tournament, the USA lifted their fifth gold medal after defeating the Australians in a penalty shoot-out. USA have been the dominant force in women's water polo for some time and they do not look like they would giving up their crown any time soon.
Today's matches in the men's Super Finals consist of ties between hosts Montenegro and China, Austria vs. Croatia, USA vs. Spain and Serbia vs. South Africa.
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