The men's water polo tournament at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships was held from 12 to 24 July 2025. This was the 22nd time that the men's water polo tournament has been played since the first edition in 1973. Croatia were the defending champions, having beaten Italy in Doha 2024.
Spain won their fourth title by defeating Hungary in the final.
Qualification
Qualification took place between January 2024 and April 2025, with a mix of international competitions organised by World Aquatics and continental championships held by the regional bodies acting as qualification. Overall, 42 countries took part in qualification. The slot allocation was as follows:
Host nation: 1 slot 2024 Summer Olympics: 3 slots 2025 World Cup: 3 slots 2025 Asian Championship: 3 slots 2024 Pan American Championship: 2 slots 2024 European Championship: 3 slots African selection: 1 slot Oceanian qualification: 1 slot
Of the 16 countries that qualified, 14 took part in 2024, with one change coming from Asia where hosts, Singapore, replaced Kazakhstan, marking Singapore's debut in the tournament. Kazakhstan's non-qualification results in them missing out for the first time since 2007. Canada qualified having missed out on the previous edition, while 2024 fourth place finishers, France, failed to qualify for the first time since 2022.
The highest ranked team that failed to qualify was France, ranked 10th, while hosts Singapore are the lowest ranked team participating, ranked 38th.
EventDatesHostsQuotaQualifier(s)Host nation 1 2024 Summer Olympics 28 July – 11 August 2024 Paris 3 2025 World Cup 18 December 2024 – 13 April 2025 Podgorica 3 2025 Asian Championship 25 February – 2 March 2025 Zhaoqing 2 2024 Pan American Championship 20–26 November 2024 Ibagué 2 2024 European Championship 4–16 January 2024 Dubrovnik/Zagreb 3 African selection 1 Oceanian qualification 17–22 April 2025 Perth 1 Total 16
Summary of qualified teams TeamQualification methodDate of qualificationAppearance(s)Previous best performancehttps://www.worldaquatics.com/water-polo/rankings?gender=M Host nation 1st 38 2024 Olympics 15th 1994 2024 15 (2007, 2017, 2024) 1 11th 2007 11 (2009, 2015) 5 22nd 1973 22 (1986, 1991, 2009) 6 2024 Pan American Championship 12th 1986 2 (2015) 10 19th 1973 2023 1 (2009) 13 2025 Asian Championship 12th 1982 2024 3 (1982) 19 2001 7 (2022) 12 2025 World Cup 19th 1973 8 (2023) 4 22nd 22 (1973, 2003, 2013, 2023) 3 21st 6 (1998, 2001, 2022) 2 2024 European Championship 22nd 22 (1978, 1994, 2011, 2019) 7 10th 2009 10 (2013) 8 13th 1973 2 (1975) 14 Winner of Oceanian qualification 22nd 22 (1998) 11 African selection 14th 1994 12 (2005, 2019, 2022) 25
Final draw The Final draw was held at 17:00 CET on 7 May 2025 at the World Aquatics' interim headquarters in Budapest, Hungary. The draw was hosted by sports presenter Edit Szalay. Water polo players, Laura Ester and Filip Filipović, alongside World Aquatics President Husain Al-Musallam and Singaporean Olympian Mark Chay, were the guests who assisted with the draw. The draw started with, in order, pots 4, 3, 2 and 1 being drawn, with each team selected then allocated into the first available group alphabetically. The position for the team within the group would then be drawn (for the purpose of the schedule). There were no draw restrictions.
Seeding The seeding was announced on 6 May 2025, a day before the draw. For the first time since 2019, a team from outside Europe has been placed in pot 1.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4
Draw For the first time ever, one of the groups (group C) contained no European teams.
+ Group A TeamA1 A2 A3 A4 + Group B TeamB1 B2 B3 B4 + Group C TeamC1 C2 C3 C4 + Group D TeamD1 D2 D3 D4
Referees On 26 April 2025, the following referees were announced as officiating the championship.
Region Country Referees Africa Yasser Mehalhel Dasch Barber Americas Germán Moller Marcella Braga Evan Andrews Jennifer McCall Scott Voltz Asia Zhang Liang Chisato Kurosaki
Region Country RefereesAsia Wu Zhekang Europe Andrej Franulović Aurély Blanchard Frank Ohme Maxim Gerasimov Georgios Stavridis Tamás Kovács-Csatlós Alessia Ferrari Stanko Ivanovski
Region Country Referees Europe Michiel Zwart Mihai Balanescu Ivan Raković Boris Margeta David Gómez Marta Cabanas Oceania Fiona Haigh Nicholas Hodgers Megan Perry
Preliminary round The schedule was announced on 26 May 2025.
All times are local (UTC+8).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stage Bracket Championship bracket
5th place bracket
9th place bracket
13th place bracket
Playoffs
Quarterfinals
13th–16th place semifinals
9th–12th place semifinals
5th–8th place semifinals
Semifinals
15th place game
13th place game
Eleventh place game
Ninth place game
Seventh place game
Fifth place game
Third place game
Final
Final ranking
RankTeam45678910111213141516
2025 Men's Water Polo World Champions SpainFourth title
Statistics and awards Top goalscorers +RankNameGoalsTop scorersShots 1 Reuel D'Souza 26 45 582 Yusuke Inaba23 49 47 Dušan Banićević 40 58 4 Álvaro Granados 21 52 40 5 Bernat Sanahuja 20 42 486 Vlad-Luca Georgescu17 35 49 Taiyo Watanabe 37 468 Luka Bukić16 26 62 Andrei Neamțu 27 5910 Lucas Andrade15 38 39 Ryder Dodd 33 45 Filip Gardašević 36 42 Nathan Power 26 58
Awards The awards were announced on 24 July 2025.
All-star team Goalkeeper Panagiotis TzortzatosField player Reuel D’Souza Álvaro Granados Yusuke Inaba Dušan Mandić Krisztián Manhercz Stylianos ArgyropoulosOther awards Most Valuable Player Álvaro Granados Best Goalkeeper Panagiotis Tzortzatos
Notes
References
External links
Official website FINA website Omega timing total-waterpolo.com