🤽Rules Water Polo

Water polo is an aquatic team sport where two teams swim in a pool and try to throw the ball into the opponent's goal. Players are not allowed to touch the bottom of the pool (except the goalkeeper) and move only by swimming, making it very physically demanding. Contact and the battle for the ball are constant, governed by strict officiating.

Score more goals than the opponent by sending the ball fully into their goal. A team wins by holding the higher score at the end of regulation time.

• •Each team has 7 players in the water: 6 field players and 1 goalkeeper.
• •Only the goalkeeper may touch the ball with both hands, inside their area; others play one-handed.
• •Standing on the bottom or pushing off the walls during play is not allowed.
• •A goal is worth 1 point and counts when the ball fully crosses the goal line.
• •The attacking team has a limited time (tracked by a possession clock) to shoot at goal.
• •Pushing the ball underwater when challenged is not allowed.

Each goal is worth exactly 1 point. A goal is awarded when the ball fully crosses the goal line, between the posts and under the bar. The final score is simply the total number of goals scored by each team.

The standard World Aquatics format consists of 4 quarters of 8 minutes of effective time, with an interval between periods (a longer break at half-time). Period length and intervals may be shortened in youth categories or by the national federation.

The team that has scored the most goals at the end of the four periods wins the match. In a knockout match ending in a tie, the game may go to extra time or be decided by a penalty shootout, depending on the competition rules.