Today we published the article that the United States of America will host the Men’s World Cup final tournament.
After that, in the afternoon, World Aquatics announced that both World Aquatics Water Polo World Cup 2023 Finals would be held in the USA and confirmed the host cities. The final tournaments will be staged in California. Eight teams will participate in each tournament (six from Division 1 and two from Division 2)
The Men’s World Cup Final will take place in Los Angeles (June 30 – July 2), while the ladies will battle for the trophy in Long Beach (June 23 – 25).
As we already reported, Men’s Division 1 will be played in Zagreb and Podgorica between March 8 and 14.
The hosts of the games in Women’s Division 1 will be Rotterdam (Netherlands) from April 11 to 13 and Athens (Greece) on April 19 – 21.
The tournaments of the Men’s and Women’s Division 2 will be held in Berlin (Germany) at the same time (May 1 – 7). The top two teams from each tournament in Division 2 will qualify for the Final. The competition formula and the lists of the participating teams in Division 2 haven’t been announced yet. This division is open for all national teams that wish to play in the World Aquatics Water Polo World Cup.
As for Men’s Division 1, the three teams from each tournament will qualify for the Final in Los Angeles (Team USA is, as the host, already qualified).
The competition formula of Division 1 in the Women’s World Cup differs.
Division 1, Women, groups of first tournament
GROUP A: Greece, Netherlands, Hungary, Australia.
GROUP B: Spain, United States of America, Italy, China.
The first tournament in Rotterdam (April 11 – 13) will be played in a round-robin format (each team will play three games).
The top two teams from each group in Rotterdam will qualify for the group for the ranking from 1st – 4th place in Athens (April 19 – 21). The remaining four teams will play in the group for 5th-8th place. The round-robin system will be applied in Athens as well as in Rotterdam.
The top six teams will qualify for the Final in Long Beach. So, all four teams from the higher group in Athens will already have a guaranteed berth for the Final after the Rotterdam competition. However, the results in Athens will matter because the final rankings in Division 1 will determine the teams’ seeding for the Final tournament. The USA is directly qualified.
The point system in the World Cup will be the same as in the World League (3, 2, 1 point). A team that wins a match in a regular time will earn three points. A penalty shootout will decide a winner if a game ends in a tie. A team that wins a game in a shootout will get two, and a losing side one point.
Follow the results and statistics of Men’s Division 1 on Total Waterpolo Arena
