Editoriale

A few days ago I learned that it had been broadcast an interview to Ratko Rudic concerning his opinion on the new rules tested in some of the most important international youth competitions.

I will start that my respect and gratitude to Rudic is great even if, on same occasions, we have taken different positions.

In this interview it is also reported the opinion of Rudic on the development of waterpolo. They are telling me that even on other sites the new rules are commented.

For a long time we have discussed the 'status' of waterpolo with opinions often different and often partisan criticism. Everything takes place in the small and contentious  world of waterpolo and is limited only to the insiders, never expanding the vision to understand what the real problems of our beloved sport are.

After organizing, in 2014, in Naples, the workshop "A future for waterpolo" and being invited to several informal meetings by FINA in Lausanne, at the suggestion of Cornel Marculescu we developed a DEVELOPMENT PROJECT of waterpolo which required a considerable involvement  of human and economic resources. The PROJECT, after being finalized, was submitted to  Marculescu and all TWPC Members (FINA Technical Committee) whose Chairman is  Cav. Gianni Lonzi whom I respect and for whom I have a special appreciation for the tremendous work he has done for years for our sport.

Project has also been forwarded to Mr. bartolo Consolo, FINA Development Committee's President, of which we cannot find any news.

We also met with Barelli and Ibern and we made further changes to improve the work.

The PROJECT consists of a first part that describes the current status of waterpolo in the world, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. The second part suggests measures for the improvement and development. The described negativities list not only observations on the rules but, certainly more importantly, the habitat deficiencies of events, the spectacular nature of the meetings, the little attractiveness of television coverage (issues related to water reflections, commentaries and comments, etc. ) with the consequent insufficient relationship with Media.

They are identified in the above-mentioned deficiencies, the real causes of the lack of interest of sponsors.

As all of us notice, except for major events (Olympics, World and European Championships,), the majority of the competitions are ignored or underappreciated though waterpolo, more than all other sports, is so determined to organize championships and events.

It should be noted that, water polo is managed by FINA, Continental Leagues and National Federations together with other aquatic disciplines but, unfortunately, our sport has problems more difficult to resolve than swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, open-water swimming and rescue.

Our sport has the need to involve human resources, which we think may exist anywhere, but even more economic resources that could only be granted through sponsorship of multinational, national and local companies.

The truth is that any sponsor is contacted, informs on the spread of water polo in the world. Major sponsors, multinational and national ones, although in some cases have approached to our sport, then they lost interest after finding that waterpolo is followed only in some countries.  

We see, in fact, waterpolo is widespread and practiced at a high level only in those countries bordering the Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, the Tyrrhenian Sea, Mediterranean Sea limited to Spain, Hungary and some other nation like the US, Australia. Very minor activities also exist in Germany, France, Russia, Romania, China, Japan and the Netherlands. Everywhere, both clubs and Federations have significant problems in the economic management of their activities. In the last Olympics, we appreciated the work done by Rudic in Brazil who,  such as in the US,  has been an ambassador generating enthusiasm.

to confirm the above, to better define the DEVELOPMENT PROJECT we contacted two major American multinational communication and marketing agencies (McCann, Y & R). The first question asked us was: "In which countries is waterpolo practiced and widespread?". From our indication of the nations mentioned above, the answer was: "If waterpolo are not propagated and practiced in the five continents no major sponsors will approach your sport."

The PROJECT describes the most important measure to be implemented relating to the diffusion of waterpolo in the five continents. By fully sharing the opinion of Rudic, in the Waterpolo People’s PROJECT  they are hypothesized guidelines for improving the popularity of waterpolo in the five continents. This aim was the task of FINA that, in February 2015, had designed a "Commission for the improvement of the popularity of waterpolo" the results of which we were unable to find information.

The PROJECT guidelines suggest to FINA four phases of interventions.

We believe it is necessary that, in the first phase, FINA establishes a TEAM that, under its leadership, will be composed of FINA Technical Committee, a communication and marketing agency and FINA Development Commission (if operative). The TEAM will also interact with qualified subjects of our world in order to better define INTERVENTION PLANS, in the second phase, the establishment of DEVELOPMENT CORES in the Leagues of the five continents. The third step considers that DEVELOPMENT CORES of Leagues  interact with National Federations which, in turn, in the fourth phase, organize workshops with clubs for the training of managers / promoters, coaches, referees, plant operators.

As well Rudic indicates  it will require that FINA decides to invest in economic resources waterpolo that only later can be retrieved with the help of sponsors.

Waterpolo People gave his total willingness to collaborate with FINA stating, with humility, that its PROJECT could be criticized, improved / changed but that, however, it was necessary to interact with marketing and communication experts.

Only with respect to the criticism about the new rules, all that, as I said, we continue to read, t needs to be verified with investigations conducted by qualified agencies that detect the improvement of the spectacle not on the insiders but on the spectators who get involved in turn in events and television broadcasts. Everything else will always be discussed, criticized, approved but does not contribute to the improvement of our sport.