The World Aquatics Water Polo World Rankings, formerly the FINA Water Polo World Rankings, are World Aquatics' ranking system for national teams in water polo.
The ranking system, introduced in 2025, compares teams based on the weighted average rating points they earn in games over the last eight years. Teams earn a certain amount of rating points for each game based on the margin of victory/defeat, site of game and strength of opponent. Each game's rating points are then weighted by factors including the time of game, competition/region, competition stage and round reached.
The ranking system produces four separate rankings: Men's, Women's, Boys and Girls. The Boys' and Girls' age group rankings are based on combined results across all age divisions from under-16 to under-20 matches.
History In their previous ranking system, World Aquatics (formerly FINA) awarded teams points based on placements in final tournaments including the Olympic Games, World Championships and continental championships.
Calculation Teams are ranked based on the total points they earn in all matches played over the last eight years as follows:
where: TP – Total points – Rating points for match – Match Weighting for match
Rating Points (RP) Teams earn a certain amount of rating points per match based on the margin of victory/defeat, site of game and strength of their opponent, calculated as follows:
where: – Rating Points – Basis Points – : Home, Away and Neutral Matches Points – Opposition Ranking Points
Basis Points Teams are awarded basis points based on the margin of victory/defeat as follows: Victory margin Points to winning team Points to losing team Penalty shoot-out 60 40 1–4 goals 65 35 5–10 goals 70 30 11 or more goals 75 25 Forfeit 70 0
Home, Away and Neutral matches Points Teams are awarded or deducted points based on the site of the game as follows: Site of game Points Home game −3 points Neutral venue No adjustment Away game +3 points
Opposition Ranking Points
To account for strength of opposition, teams are awarded points based on the ranking of their opponent, calculated as:
where: WPWR – Ranking of lowest-ranked team in the Water Polo World Rankings OR – Ranking of opponent
Match Weight (MW) The Rating Points a team earns for a match is weighted by the Match Weight, calculated as follows:
where: – Match Weight – Time Decay factor – Competition Weight – Round weight
Time Decay Time Decay (TD) factor is calculated as follows:
where is the "scoring age" of the event: 0 - less than 2 years since match 730.5 - 2–4 years since match 1461 - 4–6 years since match 2191 - 6–8 years since match 2922 - greater than 8 years since match (not taken into consideration)
Competition Weight Event tier Competition/Region Weighting Tier 1Olympic Games3 World Aquatics Championships2 Other events1.5 Tier 2 All events1 Tier 3Africa0.35 Americas0.75 Asia0.75 Europe1 Oceania0.5 Tier 4 and 5Africa0.2 Americas0.5 Asia0.5 Europe0.75 Oceania0.2
Competition Stage Event tier Stage/Round Weighting Tiers 1, 2 and 3Preliminaries0.2 Crossovers0.3 Classification match0.4 Quarter-finals0.6 Semi-finals0.8 Bronze medal match0.8 Gold medal match1 Tiers 4 and 5All Matches0.2
References
External links Water Polo World Rankings World Aquatics website