Industry news

Water polo: A tale of two sports

EBRAHIM MOERAT spoke to water polo enthusiasts whose views are represented on the website named Water Polo SA (see www.waterpolosa.com)

Swimmingly is not quite the word to describe the relationships within the aquatic community of SA today. Many seem to believe water polo is being neglected by the powers that be, restricting its potential to grow and develop as an independent sport. Despite the fact that Water Polo SA has shown tremendous increase in the number of new players over the last few years, it appears the sport is slowly drowning in the wake left by the governing body, Swimming SA (SSA).

Although interest in water polo seems to be on the up, it’s very difficult to establish exactly how many players are currently involved, says director of the independent body, Water Polo SA, Steve Douglas. “Water polo is estimated to have in the region of around 20 000 to 25 000 players countrywide. The numbers are thought to be even higher, however SSA’s failure to keep an adequate register of players has allowed them to under support and underfinance the sport over the last couple of years.

“Even though most of the growth has happened in schools we are losing players across the board to overseas clubs and not realising the full potential at club-level due to the fact that in this country water polo has been marginalised by SSA. Unless water polo is acknowledged as a mainstream sport, it will always remain a subsidiary of swimming and will never develop to its full potential. There is no future for water polo under SSA,” Douglas added.

Internationally, both Australia and New Zealand have successfully negotiated their independence from swimming, which in theory should make it easier for SA to follow suit. This, however, does not seem to be the case, explains Douglas. “You’d think it would be easy to do the same after the way has been paved, but there are a lot of legal matters which make it very difficult. It just doesn’t make sense. Underwater hockey is a registered sport, but water polo is not. It is quite obvious that swimming is not water polo. Just because rugby and soccer are both played on grass and played with a ball, should we do away with SAFA and allow SARU to run soccer as well? Of course not.”

Douglas believes that SSA has never recognised the individuality of water polo and in doing so; the national body is putting the sport at a distinct disadvantage.

“They’ve behaved disgracefully in the past, especially when they didn’t enter our juniors for the 2007 FINA Junior World championships. And that after they named two teams (boys and girls) 18 months prior to the event. Parents spent over a million rand getting players to compulsory training camps across the country only to be disappointed by what SSA refer to as an administration error.”

The annual budget of SSA in the 2006/2007 season was R40-m, of which only R350 000 was spent on water polo. A meager R30 000 was allocated to the national team, although players are required to carry all expenses themselves.

“I have had countless telephone conversations with the Ministry of Sport, SASCOC and FINA, trying to get them to realise that water polo is a sport for life. SSA is squeezing the lifeblood out of our sport and they are being allowed to do so with impunity.”

Water Polo SA operates on a shoestring budget and limited infrastructure, yet the code has managed to consistently develop over the past few years.

Douglas stresses that with proper backing water polo could be a major power in the sporting fraternity. “The national coach for water polo is not a paid position, but swimming on the other hand has a permanent paid national coach along with a high performance centre and athletes who are funded. If water polo was given the proper opportunities, and the correct funding, we would certainly be a world-force.”

Furthermore, he believes that SSA have failed dismally to transform the sport over the years. “Water polo is the most transformed aquatic sport in SA and it’s all thanks to the dedication of schools and clubs, not the involvement of Swimming SA. We have the best transformation strategy and policies in place and would make SA proud.”

Sales growing

Amidst the uncertainty surrounding the survival of water polo in SA, manufacturers and distributors of water polo equipment and accessories are apparently all for the separation between Water Polo SA and SSA. Increased demands for gear across the country confirm the growth in popularity, as well as the need to make a breakthrough.

Kevin de Wet (De Wet Sports, Cape Town) says his sales went up by just over 20% from last year and he is looking forward to more expansion. “Most of the balls are distributed to schools or privately. Compared to rugby balls, we don’t sell a lot, but water polo seems to be growing at a rate and that is a good sign.”

In Durban Rob Atwell (Thuthukani Manufacturing) has also noticed developments in recent times. “The growth in the sport is quite apparent. There has definitely been an increase in inquiries from clubs and schools for water polo goalposts, but most of the growth and development, it seems, is taking place in the schools.”

SHAUN ADRIAANSE, CEO of Swimming SA, responds to Water Polo SA

Firstly, I would like to inform you that Steve Douglas is not a member of Swimming SA (SSA) and is not in any way related to SSA activities.

Douglas has indicated in the past that he wishes to be involved in administration at national level. We, however, pointed out to him that he then needs to register via his local provincial affiliate and be nominated by his province to serve on the national technical committee of water polo.

Your document refers to Water Polo SA — and I hereby inform you that no such body exists. We at SSA have a national technical committee that makes technical decisions regarding this exciting aquatics discipline.

With regard to player statistics, the estimate is exactly that, as our records indicate that there were 967 players registered for the period May 2006 – April 2007. For the period May 2007 – April 2008 our records indicate a total of 818 players registered.

Responses to specific comments

1: “Even though most of the growth has happened in schools we are losing players across the board to overseas clubs and not realising the full potential at club level due to the fact that in this country water polo has been marginalised by SSA. Unless water polo is acknowledged as a mainstream sport, it will always remain a subsidiary of swimming and will never develop to its full potential. There is no future for water polo under SSA.”

SSA RESPONDS: Swimming SA knows of two players playing water polo overseas and both played in the national team. We have identified water polo as a potential growth area in both the number of players and improving the standard of our national teams to compete at international level.

2: Internationally, both Australia and New Zealand have successfully negotiated their independence from swimming, which in theory should make it easier for SA to follow suit. This, however, does not seem to be the case, explains Douglas. “you’d think it would be easy to do the same after the way has been paved, but there are a lot of legal matters that make it very difficult...

Underwater hockey is a registered sport, but water polo is not. It is quite obvious that swimming is not water polo. Just because rugby and soccer are both played on grass and played with a ball, should we do away with SAFA and allow SARU to run soccer as well. Of course not.”

SSA RESPONDS: While we do benchmark our systems and programmes against international equivalent organisations, we are a SA organisation that have to deal with local matters in a way that is best suited to local conditions within the context of our socio–economic realities.

3: Douglas believes that SSA has never recognised the individuality of water polo and in doing so; the national body is putting the sport at a distinct disadvantage. “They’ve behaved disgracefully in the past, especially when they didn’t enter our juniors for the 2007 FINA Junior World championships. And that after they named two teams (boys and girls) 18 months prior to the event. Parents spent over a million rand getting players to compulsory training camps across the country only to be disappointed by what SSA refer to as an administration error.”

SSA responds: If individuality refers to an environment where decisions are made by a particular individual without regard for the collective organisation by following due process, such as consultation with stakeholders, then the comment would be factual. However, the matter with regard to the juniors has been dealt with by the relevant stakeholders. We have put in place processes and procedures to ensure such an incident does not occur in the future.

4: The annual budget of SSA in the 2006/2007 season was R40-m, of which only R350 000 was spent on water polo. A meager R30 000 was allocated to the national team, although players are required to carry all expenses themselves.

SSA SAYS: This is factually incorrect. SSA spent in excess of R375 000 to send the senior men’s team to participate in the FINA World Championship in Melbourne, March 2007.

5: Water Polo SA operates on a shoestring budget and limited infrastructure, yet the code has managed to consistently develop over the past few years. Douglas stressed that with proper backing water polo could be a major power in the sporting fraternity. “The national coach for water polo is not a paid position, but swimming on the other hand has a permanent paid national coach along with a high performance centre and athletes who are funded. If water polo was given the proper opportunities and the correct funding we would certainly be a world-force.”

SSA SAYS: SSA certainly agrees with Mr. Douglas that water polo has the opportunity to grow into a major sporting activity.

The reality is that with a relative low registration base of competitive athletes compared to the 11 000 in swimming, this means a bottom up review of water polo which we have started to implement in the last two years.

This included a FINA Coaches Clinic in October 2007, increasing the number of high level games that players can compete in, including the introduction of the Samsung National Water Polo League in February 2008, and the forthcoming opportunities for the SA national team to compete against African opposition at the African Senior Aquatic Championships in Johannesburg in December this year.

From a financial perspective, SSA subsidised the teams from the various provinces to travel to each of the legs of the Samsung National Water Polo League.

The introduction of the Samsung National Water Polo League allowed SSA to negotiate increased television exposure on Supersport as part of our strategy to increase the media exposure and public profile of water polo in SA.

6: Furthermore he believes that SSA have failed dismally to transform the sport over the years. “Water polo is the most transformed aquatic sport in South Africa and it’s all thanks to the dedication of schools and clubs, not the involvement of SSA. We have the best transformation strategy and policies in place and would make South Africa proud.”

SSA RESPONDS: Again Mr. Douglas refers to a fictitious Water Polo SA. We certainly do not have an organisation such as that registered with us. We do, however, have a transformation policy and long term strategy in place to ensure that SA aquatics, including water polo, is transformed to reflect the demographics of this country.

These are the exact same policies and strategies that Mr. Douglas questioned and opposed. However, we must add that both schools and senior water polo have continued to have difficulty in fielding one black player in some of their teams during the last season.

7: Amidst the uncertainty surrounding the survival of water polo in South Africa, manufacturers and distributors of water polo equipment and accessories are apparently all for the separation between Water Polo SA and SSA. Increased demands for gear across the country confirm the growth in popularity as well as the need to make a breakthrough.

SSA RESPONDS: Again, we cannot comment on the fictitious Water Polo SA. We would assume though that the increase in activity has a lot to do with increased media exposure leveraged by SSA.

Further reading:

» Tony Ferguson, former chairman of the Swimming SA Water Polo Technical Committee and chairman of Central Gauteng Water Polo resigned from the technical committee at the end of last year. In a hard-hitting statement (read in full on www.waterpolosa.com/newsflash/tony-ferguson-speaks-out-about-ssa.html) he comments on various issues regarding transformation in the sport, including the way a decision by Swimming SA was implemented not to allow the top teams to play in the final at the SA Schools and Kramer tournaments in Cape Town at the end of last year. He also comments on funding of transformation programmes for swimming vs water polo and that Gauteng have, for the second year running, sponsored a team of black water polo players to play in the league.
» See the letter Water polo is Drowning on www.waterpolosa.com/newsflash/dark-clouds.html about the transformation of water polo at school level.