GBR lose out as FINA announce World U18 women’s Champs lineup - May 31, 2018

FINA has now announced the 16 teams which will be attending the World Women’s U18 water polo Championships in Belgrade later in the year, and unfortunately there is no place for Great Britain despite finishing 6^th in the qualifying European Championships in 2017.

Water Polo Management Group Chair Ian Elliot said, “Although this is enormously disappointing news for the talented and dedicated players in this team, many of whom were in our junior team which won the EU Nations Senior Women’s event last weekend, in fact the FINA rules which govern qualification are very clear.

We knew back in 2017 that Russia had already qualified for one of the European slots at the 2018 Worlds because they won the 2016 Worlds in New Zealand. The hope was that a nation from a different region might have decided not to compete but this was not to be. It is time now to re-focus on other exciting opportunities for international competition.

Many of the athletes involved can look forward to competing for Great Britain at the LEN European Women’s U19 Championships in Funchal, Portugal Sept 9^th – 16^th 2018, and of course there is the opportunity to play for senior teams at the Commonwealth Games Tournament in Malta later in September”

WPMG Update, 01 June 2017

It may be helpful to clarify the timeline here. When the 2000 women played in Serbia at the U17 European Championships in August 2017 it was wrongly assumed by all concerned in the Management Group that automatic qualification for the 2018 U18 Worlds would be achieved provided GBR finished in one of the top six places.

This was because in previous years, qualification from European Championships to World Championships had always appeared straightforward, namely that the top 6 European teams would qualify by right.

However there is a FINA byelaw that the preceding World’s U18 Champions would have automatic qualification for the next World Championships irrespective of where that team finished in its Continental group. This byelaw effectively did not come into play in previous years because former World’s winners, if European, had always finished in the top 6 at the subsequent Europeans.

Russia had won the 2016 Worlds and therefore held an automatic place for the 2018 Worlds which meant that if Russia had finished in the top 6 at the Europeans in 2017, then any team occupying one of the other top 6 places would automatically qualify for the 2018 Worlds, exactly as in previous years. However if Russia finished out of the top 6, they would still qualify and the European Continental Quota for qualifiers would be reduced by 1, meaning that only the top 5 European teams in 2017 would automatically qualify for the 2018 World Champs.

Unfortunately the Russian 2000s narrowly lost to Italy in their critical 5-8 placing game, and subsequently finished 7^th in the 2017 European Championships. The Russian 7^th placing meant that as things stood the top five, and not the top six, 2017 European 2000 teams would qualify, and this only became apparent to the Management Group after the event.

An additional complication was then identified namely, that the FINA byelaw also indicates that the Host nation for the World Championship has automatic qualification which does not impact on the quota from the Continent in which the Host is located.

The Management Group understood in early 2018 that it was likely that a European Nation would be the Host for the 2018 World Champs, and if that was the case, and the Host had qualified as a 2017 Top five U17 European Nation, then that would free a further qualification place in Europe which would fall to GBR.

In that case the European attendees at the 2018 Worlds would have been Russia, as previous World Champs, the Top 5 European Host nation, plus 5 more European nations – which would have included GBR

Discussions took place with FINA as the Management Group were completely supportive of attendance by the 2000 team at the 2018 World Championships.

In March 2018, FINA announced that Serbia had been accepted as the Host nation for the 2018 Worlds, and because Serbia had not been placed in the top 5 in Europe, therefore there would not be an automatic invitation to GBR to attend the Worlds by right.

Accordingly the GBR 2000 players were notified in March 2018 that there was a risk that the team would not in fact be attending the Worlds later this year.

It was then hoped that events would unfold as they had done in previous years, namely that once FINA issued invitations to the qualifying nations around the world, then at least one country, and probably more, would decline to attend. This assumption was felt to be reasonable as in previous years exactly this scenario had happened, and FINA had then issued invitations to other teams, including GBR teams, which had finished well out of qualification. Unfortunately, and very unusually, all invited nations for the 2018 World Championships then accepted the invitation to attend and therefore the roster for the Event was full.

The outcome is of course hugely disappointing for everyone, and with lessons learnt, we now need to focus on this year’s international tournaments including the entry of the 1999 GBR women’s and men’s team in the 2018 U19 European Championships.

It should be noted that there is an identical FINA byelaw that the preceding World’s U20 Champions have automatic qualification for the next World U20 Championships irrespective of where that team finishes in its Continental U19 qualifying group. Russia won the U20 Women’s World Champs in Volos in 2017, and therefore Russia will be at the 2019 World Champs.

So, if Russia finish in the top 6 at the Women’s U19 Europeans in 2018, then any team occupying one of the other top 6 places will automatically qualify for the 2019 Worlds. However if Russia finish out of the top 6, they will still qualify, and the European Continental Quota for qualifiers will be reduced by 1, meaning that in that scenario only the top 5 U19 European women’s teams in 2018 will automatically qualify for the 2019 U20 Women’s World Champs, subject to the identity of the Host nation and if European, its placing at the Women’s U19 Europeans in 2018.

More info re qualification rules and 2018 U18 World Champs qualifying teams here

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