The European preliminary rounds of the FINA Men’s Water Polo World League 2018 will kick-off on November 14 across various European cities.
The groups’ composition unfolds as follow:
GROUP A: ROU, MNE, SRB
GROUP B: CRO, GER, RUS
GROUP C: ESP, HUN, NED
On Tuesday November 14, Romania will play Serbia, Croatia will welcome the Russians in Zadar (CRO), and the Netherlands will face the Spanish in Malaga (ESP).
The European preliminaries will be played in six rounds, following this calendar from November 2017 to April 2018:
|
ROUND |
DATE |
A |
B |
C |
|
1 |
14 November 2017 |
ROU-SRB |
CRO-RUS |
ESP-NED |
|
2 |
12 December 2017 |
SRB-MNE |
GER-RUS |
NED-HUN |
|
3 |
16 January 2018 |
MNE-ROU |
GER-CRO |
HUN-ESP |
|
4 |
13 February 2018 |
SRB-ROU |
RUS-CRO |
NED-ESP |
|
5 |
20 March 2018 |
MNE-SRB |
RUS-GER |
HUN-NED |
|
6 |
10 April 2018 |
ROU-MNE |
CRO-GER |
ESP-HUN |
From these six rounds, the four best teams will be qualified for the Super Final to be held in June 2018, in which the four best teams from the Intercontinental Tournaments will join them.
Check out the 2018 Rules & Regulations
Team Serbia, who are the current Olympic title holders, have grabbed the World League title consecutively since 2013, while Italy and Croatia secured the silver and bronze medals respectively in 2017.
Croatia won the World Championships tournament, ahead of Hungary and Serbia, last summer in Budapest (HUN).
Press release courtesy of FINA.