Rules

Water polo's subtitle often reads "football in the water", which may seem absurd on the surface, considering the feet can do nothing, Yet, the correlation between water polo and football (soccer) is striking.

The ball has relatively the same dimensions as a soccer ball.  The object of each game is to put the ball in the opposing team's net.  Sharp, accurate passing is critical.  Players advance the ball by passing or dribbling.  Shots on goal are launch with hurtling speed.  And goals can be scored with virtually any part of the body.

Whereas the hand is taboo 'in soccer, water polo specifically outlaws the clenched fist.  Otherwise, just close the eyes and imagine the same ebb and flow, the same scoring pace, perhaps even same plays at work.

The Game

Water polo is played between two teams of seven players trying to defend their goals while attempting to score at the other end of the pool.  The following diagram illustrates the seven players and their positions within the playing area:

Players are not allowed to touch the bottom or sides of the pool and instead must swim or tread water the entire game.  The game consists of four periods, each seven minutes in actual playing time and separated by two-minute intervals.  However, stoppages for a 'de range of violations or ordinary fouls, are frequent, for a typical game lasts 65 to 70 minutes.

III. Starting Play

Each team lines up at roughly one-meter intervals along its goal line to start the game.  The ball is placed in the middle of the field of play on a special buoy.  When the teams are in position, a referee blows the whistle to start, and the buoy retracts, leaving the ball floating on the water.

The fastest swimmer on each side dashes for the ball to take possession. :-The game then flows continuously between offense and defense, with each team trying to advance the ball through quick and efficient passing and dribbling while looking for a shot on goal.  Only the goalkeepers may touch the ball with two hands and the defense is allowed to tackle the player with the ball.  A foul is called if the tackled player holds the ball underneath whether the action is intentional or not.

IV. Scoring

The offense has 35 seconds to shoot.  A player scores a goal and is worth one point if the entire ball crosses the goal line between the goal posts.  Players can score from any part of the field of play as long as they not punch the ball with a clenched fist.  If 35 seconds expires without a shot the opposing team is awarded a free throw or throw-in to begin their offensive attack.

V. Fouls

Ordinaryfouls account for about 90 percent of the whistles during a game.  The referee gives the opposing team the ball to pass in as a free throw or throw-in.  Besides failing to shoot in time (stalling), other ordinary fouls include touching the ball with two hands, taking the ball underwater when tackled, impeding an opponent who does not have the ball or pushing off an opponent.

A penaltyfoul is an infi-action committed by a defender inside his own four-meter line to prevent a goal, which results in a penalty throw for the offense from that particular line.  Only the goalkeeper defends against it.

An exclusion foul generally crosses the sportsmanship line.  The penalty for such a flagrant violation involves sending the offending player to the exclusion area.  That can leave the defense in a critical man-down situation for 20 seconds unless a goal or change of possession occurs before this time.

VI. Goal Throw and Corner Throw

If an attacking player is the last to touch the ball before it goes out of play over the goal line, the defending team is awarded a goal throw, which is taken by the goalkeeper from anywhere within the two-meter area.

If a defending player is the last to touch the ball before it goes out of play over the goal line, the attacking team is awarded a comer throw.  These are taken from the two-meter mark on the side of the pool where the ball went out.

V. Ties

If the score is tied at the end of regulation time, the teams have a five-minute interval before playing two three-minute periods of extra time.  They change ends between the two periods.  If the score remains tied then the teams play a third, sudden death extra period with no time limit.

VI. Field of Play

Water polo at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games was played in a common 50 meter swimming pool, but the water must be at least two meters deep throughout.  Consequently, players swim or tread water the entire length of the game.  Floating ropes will of the field of play, 30 meters by 20 meters for men and 25 meters by 17 meters for women.

Colored buoys mark various imaginary lines across the playing area.  White buoys mark the two goal lines and the half-distance line.  Red buoys indicate the two-meter lines near each goal line.  Yellow buoys mark the four-meter lines and green indicates the seven meter lines.  Two goals three meters wide and 90 centimeters high, float in the water.

Red exclusion areas are set out at each end, behind the goal lines and two meters in from the comers opposite the officials' table.  The areas mark where players enter and leave the field of play.  Excluded players wait in the exclusion areas for the signal to re-enter.
VII. Additional Rules and Regulations

*Players must not pass the two-meter line of the goal they are attacking unless they are behind the of the ball. ,
*Goalkeepers may catch, hold or throw the ball with both hands inside their four-meter lines.  They must stay on their own sides of the half-distance line at all times.
*Kicking is exclusion foul.  The distinction between kicking and pushing off from an opponent with the foot, an ordinary foul, is whether the foot was touching the opponent before the violation occurred.  If not, it is considered kicking.
*A bleeding player is ordered out of the game immediately and replaced by a substitute. *When play resumes after a goal, players may position themselves anywhere in there half of the field of play.
*Substitutes may enter the game at any time.