Dubai is getting ready to host the FINA Men’s Water Polo World League Super Final next month at the Hamdan Sports Complex, and organisers believe the competition will ignite interest in the sport in the region.

Since 2002, the world’s best water polo national teams meet each year to compete against one another in the sport’s first global league, which was created after the huge success of water polo at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

From this year onwards, the competition formula comprises of two preliminary tournaments, one in Europe with a series of home and away games, and an intercontinental event with the participation of teams from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

A Super Final for both the men’s and women’s league is organised with the eight qualifying teams from the preliminaries.

A total prize money of $345,000 (Dh1.26m) is dedicated to the men’s event while the prize for women is $202,500 (Dh743,175) .

The women’s Super Final will be held in Kunshan, China, while Dubai hosts the men’s Super Final from June 16-21.

“Bringing these kind of events will allow us to transfer knowledge from the world’s best coaches, referees, players and organisers so we can in turn develop in these areas,” said Ahmed Al Falasi, president of the UAE Swimming Federation.

“We will be holding workshops for both referees and coaches onthe sidelines of the competition to make sure that knowledge is indeed transferred to us.

“There has been a significant increase in the level of interest in water polo since we held our first international competition in 2012 as part of the Asian Championships.

“Since then, our under-12 and under-14 leagues, which were created in the aftermath of these championships, have been going strong and the performance level of the players has gone up, which was evident in the recent Dubai International Aquatics Championships.

“There are also financial gains from this competition. We have received numerous requests from fans who would like to attend and accompany their teams so we’ve created packages for these visitors, including tickets and hotels, so they can come to the Hamdan Sports Complex and enjoy the action.”

Serbia, Montenegro and Hungary have already qualified through the European preliminaries, while five countries will come through the intercontinental preliminaries which will be staged in Shanghai from May 26 to June 1.

TOP PERFORMERS
Previous winners of the World League
Romania 2013: Gold – Serbia, Silver – Hungary, Bronze – Montenegro
Kazakhstan 2012: Gold – Croatia, Silver – Spain, Bronze – Italy
Italy 2011: Gold – Serbia, Silver – Italy, Bronze – Croatia

Top World League countries
(Since inception in 2002)
Serbia (7 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze)
Hungary (2 Gold, 3 Silver, 1 Bronze)
Croatia (1 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze