2012 Men's European Water Polo Championship

The 2012 European Water Polo Championships
European Water Polo Championship
The European Water Polo Championship is a sport competition for national water polo teams, currently held biannually and organized by the Ligue Européenne de Natation , the governing European aquatics federation. There are both men's and women's competitions.The first European Water Polo...

will take place at the Pieter van den Hoogenband Swim Stadium in Eindhoven, the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. The championships, for men and for women, are scheduled to take place in late January and early February 2012.

Road to the 2012 Olympics

The championships will be part of the qualification procedure for the 2012 London Olympics that will take place in late July and early August of that year. There will be 12 men's teams and 8 women's teams in the Olympic competition.

By the time that these championships take place, four men's places will already have been booked: the winner of the 2011 World League

FINA Water Polo World League

The FINA Water Polo World League began in 2002 to capitalize on increased worldwide popularity of water polo created by recent Olympic Games, especially in Europe, North America and Australia. Competition between the world’s best male players began on national teams in a season format with a prize...

in Italy, and the three top-placed teams in the 2011 World Championships

2011 World Aquatics Championships

The 14th FINA World Championships were held at July 16–31, 2011 in Shanghai, China at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center. The 2011 World Championships featured five aquatics disciplines: swimming, water polo, diving, open water, and synchronised swimming...

in Shanghai that did not win the World League. No women's teams will be qualified into the Olympic tournament from these competitions.

A decision by the British Olympic Association is still pending on entry of Great Britain's teams into the 2012 Olympics. If Great Britain men's or women's teams are entered into the Olympic competition, there will not be direct entry to the Olympic tournament from the men's and women's championships respectively. Otherwise, the best-placed team in the championships not already qualified will gain a place in the Olympic Tournament. In addition, an undisclosed number of teams will be entered into a world-wide qualifying competition from 1-8 April 2012 for men in Edmonton, Canada and from 15-22 April for women in Italy. Three teams from this competition will qualify for the Olympic tournament. As a point of reference, six men's teams from the 2008 Men's European Water Polo Championship

2008 Men's European Water Polo Championship

The 2008 Men's European Water Polo Championship was the 28th edition of the bi-annual event, organised by the Europe's governing body in aquatics, the Ligue Européenne de Natation. The event took place in the Aquatic Centre Málaga in Málaga, Spain from July 4 to July 13, 2008...

were entered into the 2008 Men's Water Polo Olympic Qualifier

2008 Men's Water Polo Olympic Qualifier

The 2008 Men's Olympic Water Polo Qualifying Tournament was a tournament to decide the remaining four competing teams at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, PR China. Eight teams were already qualified, including China...

, and seven women's teams from 2008 Women's European Water Polo Championship

2008 Women's European Water Polo Championship

The 2008 Women's European Water Polo Championship was the twelve edition of the bi-annual event, organised by the Europe's governing body in aquatics, the Ligue Européenne de Natation...

were entered into the 2008 Women's Water Polo Olympic Qualifier

2008 Women's Water Polo Olympic Qualifier

The 2008 Women's Olympic Water Polo Qualifying Tournament was a tournament to decide the remaining four competing teams at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, PR China. Four teams were already qualified: Australia, China , the Netherlands and the United States...