Malta water polo national coach Cirovic names preliminary squad for World Cup Division 2

Cirovic’s selection of the squad has been influenced by an ongoing investigation over a betting scandal involving a number of national team players who figured in the European Championships held in Belgrade last January.

Looking at the list of players, Cirovic has brought in several youngsters into his squad who will join a number of established players such as Stevie Camilleri, Nicky Grixti, Ivan Nagaev, Elijah Schembri, and Darren Zammit.

The tournament will feature 26 nations, and Malta were drawn in Pot 2, where they were joined by South Africa, Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Portugal, Ukraine, Turkey, neutral selection, Poland, Hong Kong, and Slovenia.

The participating teams will compete in a revamped three-day league phase, where each team will play three matches against a mix of higher and similarly-ranked opponents.

Teams were seeded based on their World Aquatics World rankings and divided into two pots.

In the league phase, the first day features cross-line matches between higher and lower-ranked teams, followed by teams facing opponents from their own pot on day two and a return to cross-line matches on day three.

Malta will open their campaign against Australia before they face Kazakhstan and then wrap up their commitments against Romania.

The top two teams from the tournament will qualify for the Men’s Water Polo World Cup 2026 – Final that will be held in Australia between July 22 and 26.

THE SQUAD

Jeremy Abela, Rhys Bugelli, Finn Bugelli, Benji Cachia, Jake Cachia, Stevie Camilleri, Russel Caruana, Mark Castillo, Julian Chircop, Luigi Dimech, Zack Dzanovic, Sam Engerer, Nicky Grixti, Ivan Nagaev, Elijah Schembri, Julian Valletta, Darren Zammit, Jerome Zammit Gregory.