Dubai: Defending champions and five-time winners Serbia are hot favourites for next week’s Fina Men’s Water Polo League Super Final at the Hamdan Sports Complex from June 16-21.
Having breezed through the European preliminary rounds with four wins from four in their group with Russia and Romania, the 2008 and 2012 Olympic bronze medallists now face Montenegro, Brazil and China in Group A of the Super Final. Group B consists of the USA, Canada, Australia and Hungary.
Final group standings will decide the seedings for the quarter-finals, where the top team from Group A will play the bottom team of Group B and vice versa.
With most of the 2012 Olympic bronze medal-winning team in Dubai, Serbia, who also won World Championship gold in 2009 and silver in 2011, with World Cup gold in 2010, are expected to do well.
The team is coached by former international Dejan Savic, who brings to the role an impressive pedigree having played an incredible 444 matches with the national team, in which he scored 405 goals. In his spectacular playing career, Savic was part of the team, which won the World Championship in 2005, the European Championship three times and the Olympic silver medal (2004) and bronze medal (2000 and 2008). He was also part of the Serbia and Montenegro and later Serbian teams, who have dominated the World League.
The Fina Men’s Water Polo League is the global annual competition for water polo and one of the most prestigious and sought-after titles in the sport, after the Olympic Games and World Championships. The World League began in 2002 and is the water-polo equivalent to the Swimming World Cup and Diving World Series, which have been hosted in Dubai since 2011. The Super Final winner will take home the $100,000 (Dh367,800) winner’s cheque along with the title of World League winner for 2014.
The competition runs from June 16-21, with matches each day at 2.30, 3.50, 5.10 and 6.30pm. Further information about the event and the match schedule can be found on Facebook – FINA Water Polo World League – Dubai.
