2012 Men's Water Polo Olympic Games Qualification Tournament

The 2012 Men's Water Polo Olympic Qualification Tournament was held at the Kinsman Sports Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, from 1 to 8 April 2012.

There were 12 places originally allocated to continental associations in the tournament not already directly qualified to the Olympics – 5 from Europe, 3 from the Americas, 2 from Asia, 1 from Africa, and 1 from Oceania.

Montenegro, Germany, Greece, Spain and Romania qualified from the 2012 European Water Polo Championships and confirmed their attendance at the tournament. Canada qualified from the Americas as host country. Brazil and Cuba qualified from the 2011 Pan American Games, Brazil confirmed their attendance, but Cuba declined and was replaced by Argentina, the next ranked team in the 2011 Pan American Games.

No teams from Asia, Africa and Oceania applied to participate in the qualification tournament. There was an article written by a FINA press correspondent in Japan showing confusion around the qualification procedure from the Asian Championships, as the article states that the winners of the Asian Championships had advanced to this qualification tournament (in fact, they qualified directly for the Olympics) and that Japan could no longer get to the Olympics (in fact, according to FINA By-Laws, they were eligible for this tournament, and they did not apply). The next highest placed teams from the other continents were invited to take these four available places, in the following rotation:

In the first rotation, the next-placed teams in the 2011 Pan American Games, Mexico and Colombia, declined to participate, but Venezuela, the last-placed team, did decide to sign-up for the tournament using the host continent place. As there were no remaining American, Asian, Oceanian, nor African teams making themselves available for selection, the next three places went to the three participants in the 2012 European Water Polo Championships that were not already either qualified for the Olympics or already in this tournament - the Netherlands, Macedonia and Turkey.

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