The FINA Water Polo World League was begun 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 the addition of women's water polo at last two Olympics. Water polo is a team water sport, which can be best described as a combination of swimming, football (soccer), basketball, ice hockey, rugby and wrestling. ... Fina may refer to: Fina is the name of Belgian petroleum company Petrofina. ...

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. Kicks from the penalty mark (commonly referred to as a penalty shootout) are sometimes used to decide the winner of a tied match of association football (soccer). ...

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

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.

USA Water Polo will be hosting Group A & B women's and men's 2006 FINA World League semifinals at the US Water Polo National Training Center in Los Alamito, California in July 2006. Portugalete, Spain will host the men's Group C & D semifinal and Kirishi, Russia the women's. The Super Final is scheduled for Athens, Greece. For other uses, see Athens (disambiguation). ...

Tournament Winners

Men ^[1]

Year	Gold Medal	Silver Medal	Bronze Medal
2002	Russia	Spain	Hungary
2003	Hungary	Italy	United States
2004	Serbia and Montenegro	Spain	Greece
2005	Serbia and Montenegro	Hungary	Germany

Women ^[2]

Year	Gold Medal	Silver Medal	Bronze Medal
2004	United States	Hungary	Italy
2005	Greece	Russia	Australia

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External links

• FINA water polo official site
• 2006 FINA Water Polo World League schedule

Notes

1. ^ FINA men's water polo history
2. ^ FINA women's water polo history