🛒 Shop the best Water Polo Gear now! →
🤑 10% off on selected briefs & merch 🤑
Support the Total Waterpolo mission!
TW-Brandmark-Whitex2
  • News
  • SINGAPORE 2025
    • Men’s tournament
    • Women’s tournament
  • Results

    National

    • Montenegro
      • Montenegrin League 2024/25
      • Montenegrin Cup 24/25
      • Montenegrin League 23/24
    • Nordic League
      • Nordic League Men 24/25
      • Nordic Trophy Men 2024/25
      • Nordic League Women 2024/25
      • Nordic League 23/24
      • Qualifications
    • Slovenia
      • Slovenian League 24/25
      • Slovenian League 23/24
    • Hong Kong
      • Hong Kong 24/25 – Women
      • Hong Kong 24/25 – Men
    • Austria
      • Austrian League 2025 – Men
      • Austrian League 23/24 – Women
      • Austrian League 23/24 – Men
    • Lithuania
      • Lithuanian League ’24
    • Latvia
      • Latvian Championship 2024
    • France
      • French League 23/24 – Men
    • Spain
      • Spanish League 23/24 – Men
    • Hungary
      • Hungarian League 23/24 – Men
    • Italy
      • Italian League 23/24 – Men

    International

    • SINGAPORE 2025
      • Women
      • Men
    • LEN Champions League
      • Men 24/25
      • Men 23/24
    • DSV 98 Cup 2025
    • World Cup 2025
      • Men
    • AWL
      • Alpe Waterpolo League 2024/25
      • Alpe Waterpolo League 2023/24
      • Alpe Waterpolo League 2022/23
    • Nordic League
      • Nordic League Men 2024/25
      • Nordic Trophy Men 2024/25
      • Nordic League Women 2024/25
      • Nordic League 2023/24
      • Nordic Trophy 2023/24
    • NCAA
      • Men’s Finals 2024
      • Men’s Finals 2023
    • Oympic Games
      • Tokyo 2020
        • Women
        • Men
      • Paris 2024
        • Olympic Tournament – Men
        • Olympic Tournament – Women
    • World Championships
      • Doha 2024
        • Women
        • Men
      • Fukuoka 2023
        • Women
        • Men
      • Budapest 2022
        • Women
        • Men
    • European Championships
      • Eindhoven 2024 – Women
      • Zagreb / Dubrovnik 2024 – Men
      • Split 2022
        • Women
        • Men
      • Budapest 2020

    Amateur & Junior Divisions

    • Summer Cup 2025
    • Nordic League U16 2024/25
    • HaBaWaBa Spain 2025 – U10
    • HaBaWaBa Spain 2025 – U12
    • Masters Cup 2025

    Total Waterpolo Arena livescoring app: Stay in the game with real-time updates and stats for your next tournament.

    Contact Us
    • Champions League
      • Season 24/25
      • Season 23/24
      • Season 22/23
    • International
      • World Cup 2025 Men
      • European Championships
        • Eindhoven 2024 – Women
        • Croatia 2024 – Men
        • Split 2022
          • Women
          • Men
        • Budapest 2020
        • Barcelona 2018
      • World Championships
        • Doha 2024
          • Women
          • Men
        • Fukuoka 2023
          • Women
          • Men
        • Budapest 2022
          • Women
          • Men
      • Olympics
        • Tokyo 2020
          • Women
          • Men
        • Paris 2024
          • Women
          • Men
      • NCAA
        • NCAA Men’s Finals 2024
        • NCAA Men’s Finals 2023
      • Pacific Cup 2024
    • National
      • Montenegro
        • Montenegrin League 2024/25
        • Montenegrin Cup 2024/25
      • Austria
        • Austrian League 2025 – Men
        • Austrian League 2024 – Women
        • Austrian League 2024 – Men
      • Nordic League
        • Nordic League Men 2024/25
        • Nordic League Women 2024/25
        • Nordic League U16 2024/25
        • Nordic Trophy Men 2024/25
        • Nordic League 2023/24
        • Nordic Trophy 2023/24
      • Hong Kong
        • Hong Kong Women’s League 24/25
        • Hong Kong Men’s League 24/25
      • AWL
        • Alpe Waterpolo League 2024/25
        • Alpe Waterpolo League 2023/24
        • Alpe Waterpolo League 2022/23
      • Slovenia
      • Lithuania
      • Latvia
      • Hungarian League 2023 – Men
      • French League 2023 – Men
      • Spanish League 2023 – Men
      • Italian League 2023 – Men
    • Masters
      • Masters Cup 2025
      • VAL League 2024/25
      • Sabac Masters 2024
      • Masters Cup 2024
      • Budva Masters 2024
    • Junior
      • DSV 98 Cup 2025
      • Summer Cup 2025
      • HaBaWaBa Spain 2025 – U12
      • HaBaWaBa Spain 2025 – U10
      • HaBaWaBa Spain Plus 2025
      • Next Generation 2024 – Men
      • Next Generation 2024 -Women
      • HaBaWaBa Easter 2024 (U10)
      • HaBaWaBa Easter 2024 (U12)
      • HabaWaba Spain Plus 2024
      • Plejade
      • Dobri Dupin
  • Transfers
  • Shop

    WearWaterpolo™ Webshop

    • Webshop
    • Men’s Briefs
    • Women’s Suits
    • Apparel
    • Game Balls
    • About

    Partner up with Total Waterpolo, the leading international water polo network worldwide and take your team gear to the next level. Our products are made to endure the harshest conditions from pro leagues around the world to your local squad rivalries. We can't wait to join your team!

    Get Total Waterpolo for your Team
  • Total Player
    • Total Player 2024
    • Total Player 2023
    • Total Player 2022
    • Total Player 2021
    • Total Player 2020
    • Total Player 2019
    • Total Player 2018
    • Total Player 2017
CHL 24/25
Support Us

Champions League history: 2012 – year that changed everything

May 29, 2023

Photo by Krsto Vulovic

The upcoming final tournament of the Champions League in Belgrade (May 31 – June 3) will be the last Final Eight. A new format will be applied from the next season, very similar to the old one, with the Final Four at the end.

The last two Final Fours in the previous formats were held in 2012 and 2013.

These two Champions League seasons were milestones in the history of the competition. The series of turbulent events in the summer of 2012 partially determined the future and the format of the Champions League.

11 foreign players in winning team

Pro Recco won its 7th title in the season 2011/12, playing with an international team. Recco’s policy of many acquisitions and players under the contracts culminated that season. Recco had 25 players on the roster.

The Final Four was played in Oradea. Recco beat Vasas in the semifinals (12:5) and Primorje in the final (11:8) to win the trophy with ten wins in as many games. The narrowest margin in Recco’s games that season was a 10:8 victory over Jadran Herceg Novi in the group stage.

Almost half of Recco’s 25 players were non-Italians.

Eleven foreigners and only two Italians were on Recco’s roster that played at the F4 in Oradea.

The Italians who won the European title were goalkeeper Stefano Tempesti and Maurizio Felugo.

Three Serbs (Filip Filipovic, Dusko Pijetlovic, Andrija Prlainovic), two Croats (Damir Buric and Sandro Sukno), two Hungarians (Norbert Madaras and Tamas Kasas), two Montenegrins (Boris Zlokovic and Aleksandar Ivovic), two Spaniards (Felipe Perrone and Guillermo Molina) played for Pro Recco, along with the Italian tandem, in Oradea.

Some of the players who were on Recco’s 25-player roster for 2012, but weren’t among the 13 in Oradea were Hungarian ace Tibor Benedek (who was the captain in the Italian competitions) and several players who were regular members of the Italian national team at that time (Pietro Figlioli, Niccolo Gitto, Alex Giorgetti, Giacomo Pastorino, etc). Benedek retired in the summer of 2012 to start his coaching career.

Aleksandar Ivovic Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Total Waterpolo

I Many of the champions from 2012 will participate in the 2023 Final Eight. Sukno is Recco’s head coach, and Ivovic is the current champion’s captain. Pijetlovic wears the cap of Novi Beograd, Filipovic plays for Olympiacos, and Perrone is Barceloneta’s leader.

Everything that happened in the following months caused earthquakes in the European water polo.

In 2012, Recco was one of the initiators of launching the European water polo Super League, with 14 clubs from six countries. However, the project ended in failure because the clubs had to choose. If they had accepted to play in the Super League, they wouldn’t have been able to play in LEN competitions. LEN didn’t support a planned league, and most clubs (almost all) chose to play in LEN competitions and gave up the Super League.

As for the situation in Italy, the Italian Swimming Federation (FIN) didn’t approve proposals about increasing the number of foreign players in the national water polo league.

After these events, Recco’s honorary president Gabriele Volpi and his sons Simone and Matteo, president and vice president, resigned from their positions. As explained in the announcement, their decision resulted from the disappointments caused by LEN’s and FIN’s management and politics.

Gabriele Volpi returned to the club later, but after their resignations, Pro Recco released almost all foreigners.

Madaras was the only one who stayed. Kasas retired after Oradea, while the remaining nine moved to other clubs.

Head coach Guiseppe Porzio also left the club, but he resigned immediately after the Final Four.

Turning point for Recco and Champions League

That was a turning point for LEN, the Champions League and Pro Recco.

Let’s start with Recco. The Italian club refused to play in the next edition of the Champions League. It returned to the European stage in 2013. The club signed several new foreign players (Ivovic returned to the club). But, since then, it has never had such an extensive roster and such many foreigners on the team as it had in 2012. Today, there are five foreign players at Recco.

And what happened with the Champions League?

LEN started changing the format in response to the attempts to form the Super League.

In the season 2012/13, twenty-one teams participated in the Group stage (they were split into four groups). It was planned that 24 teams play in the Group Phase, but all of the participants in the 2012 F4 (Pro Recco, Primorje,Mladost, Vasas), than Posillipo, Montenegrin clubs didn’t enter the CHL explaining their decisions with different reasons. One of the clubs which advanced to the group phase through qualifications (Vitebech, Belarus) withdrew.

LEN’s new step was the wild-card system. From 2013/14, twelve teams participated in the Champions League (eight of them had wild cards, allocated by the special criteria), and the seasons finished with the Final Six tournaments. A few years after, the number of wild-card holders increased to 12 (therefore, the number of the teams in the group stage expanded to 16) and the Final Eight replaced the Final Six. The host of the F6/F8 directly qualified for the tournament. From the next autumn, this formula will be the past.

The wild card system will remain , but as we reported, the results in the national championships and the Champions League will be the primary criteria for their allocation. The season will end with the Final Four, and the host won’t be directly qualified.

Winners with no foreigners

We looked back to the season when Pro Recco set a record in the number of foreigners on the team.

If you ask, “When did a team without foreigners win the Champions League for the last time?” you don’t have to search the data from the 1970s;, 1980s, or 1990s….

It happened in 2012/13, just after the season that impacted changes in European water polo.

Andrija Prlainovic won the titles in 2012 and 2013 Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Total Waterpolo

Crvena Zvezda won the 2013 Champions League, which was quite a surprising but well-deserved result. Crvena Zvezda beat Jug 8:7 in the final in Belgrade, in front of 4.000 spectators at the pool Banjica. A day before, the “Red Whites” defeated Barceloneta in the semifinals.

Only Serbian players were on Crvena Zvezda’s roster. The squad leaders were Andrija Prlainovic and Dusko Pijetlovic, who arrived at Zvezda from Pro Recco a year before. Besides them, the members of the winning team, coached by Dejan Savic, were Denis Sefik, Nikola Radjen, Strahinja Rasovic, Viktor Rasovic, Marko Avramovic, Petar Ivosevic, Sava Randjelovic, Boric Vapenski, Mihajlo Milicevic, Marko Draksimovic, Nikola Stojcic (Nikola Eskert also played for Crvena Zvezda in that season).

I Four of those will participate in the 2023 F8 – Pijetlovic and brothers Rasovic are in Novi Beograd. Boris Vapenski, who gained dual Serbian-Georgian citizenship in the meantime, plays for Brescia.

Before Crvena Zvezda, the last club that won the title only with domestic players was Croatian Jug in the season 2005/06. Jug defeated Pro Recco in the final in Dubrovnik.

In 2006, the following players played for Jug: Goran Volarevic, Andrija Komadina, Miho Boskovic, Igor Racunica, Ognjen Krzic, Mile Smodlaka, Pavo Markovic, Andro Buslje, Frano Karac, Niksa Dobud, Maro Jokovic, Elvis Fatovic, Niksa Drobac and second goalkeeper Davor Car.

I Elvis Fatovic, who was Jug’s captain, coaches Barceloneta today. Maro Jokovic will play for Jug and Andro Buslje for Olympiacos at the 2023 F8.

More articles about the Champions League

More articles about the water polo history

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For more video content, subscribe to our Youtube Channel and Tik Tok account

 

Ivan Curcic
Ivan Curcic

Related posts

Rino Buric Photo: Orange Pictures

June 24, 2025

[CONFIRMED] Rino Buric to Pro Recco


Read more

Marco Del Lungo Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Total Waterpolo

June 22, 2025

[CONFIRMED] Marco Del Lungo to Savona


Read more

Gianmarco Nicosia Photo by Laszlo Balogh

June 20, 2025

[CONFIRMED] Gianmarco Nicosia to Pro Recco


Read more

SUPPORT US ON PATREON

If you share our passion for water polo worldwide, consider becoming a cherished contributor to our cause, with as little as 5$/month.

SUPPORT US


Custom Team Gear

LEARN MORE

Shop Now

Looking for something?

✕
  • 0
    [CONFIRMED] Rino Buric to Pro Recco
    June 24, 2025
  • Hungary wins tournament in Sicily ahead of Italy, Spain, and Greece
    June 23, 2025
  • [CONFIRMED] Marco Del Lungo to Savona
    June 22, 2025
  • Home
  • Water Polo News
  • WearWaterpolo Shop
  • Contact Us
  • Project Superstar – TW Camp
  • BIWPA
  • Custom Team Equipment
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
© 2021 Total Waterpolo. All Rights Reserved.
✕
CroMasters '24
Support Us
  • News
  • SINGAPORE 2025
    • Men’s tournament
    • Women’s tournament
  • Results
    • Champions League
      • Season 24/25
      • Season 23/24
      • Season 22/23
    • International
      • World Cup 2025 Men
      • European Championships
        • Eindhoven 2024 – Women
        • Croatia 2024 – Men
        • Split 2022
          • Women
          • Men
        • Budapest 2020
        • Barcelona 2018
      • World Championships
        • Doha 2024
          • Women
          • Men
        • Fukuoka 2023
          • Women
          • Men
        • Budapest 2022
          • Women
          • Men
      • Olympics
        • Tokyo 2020
          • Women
          • Men
        • Paris 2024
          • Women
          • Men
      • NCAA
        • NCAA Men’s Finals 2024
        • NCAA Men’s Finals 2023
      • Pacific Cup 2024
    • National
      • Montenegro
        • Montenegrin League 2024/25
        • Montenegrin Cup 2024/25
      • Austria
        • Austrian League 2025 – Men
        • Austrian League 2024 – Women
        • Austrian League 2024 – Men
      • Nordic League
        • Nordic League Men 2024/25
        • Nordic League Women 2024/25
        • Nordic League U16 2024/25
        • Nordic Trophy Men 2024/25
        • Nordic League 2023/24
        • Nordic Trophy 2023/24
      • Hong Kong
        • Hong Kong Women’s League 24/25
        • Hong Kong Men’s League 24/25
      • AWL
        • Alpe Waterpolo League 2024/25
        • Alpe Waterpolo League 2023/24
        • Alpe Waterpolo League 2022/23
      • Slovenia
      • Lithuania
      • Latvia
      • Hungarian League 2023 – Men
      • French League 2023 – Men
      • Spanish League 2023 – Men
      • Italian League 2023 – Men
    • Masters
      • Masters Cup 2025
      • VAL League 2024/25
      • Sabac Masters 2024
      • Masters Cup 2024
      • Budva Masters 2024
    • Junior
      • DSV 98 Cup 2025
      • Summer Cup 2025
      • HaBaWaBa Spain 2025 – U12
      • HaBaWaBa Spain 2025 – U10
      • HaBaWaBa Spain Plus 2025
      • Next Generation 2024 – Men
      • Next Generation 2024 -Women
      • HaBaWaBa Easter 2024 (U10)
      • HaBaWaBa Easter 2024 (U12)
      • HabaWaba Spain Plus 2024
      • Plejade
      • Dobri Dupin
  • Transfers
  • Shop
  • Total Player
    • Total Player 2024
    • Total Player 2023
    • Total Player 2022
    • Total Player 2021
    • Total Player 2020
    • Total Player 2019
    • Total Player 2018
    • Total Player 2017

We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience and provide personalized content. By clicking "Accept All Cookies" or continuing to browse this website, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT