Settebello suspended for six months, no World Cup in January

The Aquatics Integrity Unit of World Aquatics has suspended Il Settebello for 6 months starting today following the controversy and protests following the defeat against Hungary at the Paris Olympics. The Italian men’s national water polo team will therefore not be able to participate in the 18th edition of the World Cup and therefore defend the silver medal won in 2023. The men’s national water polo team had been included in the Division 1 qualification scheduled from 6 to 11 January 2025 in Novi Sad in Serbia. The ban will end in mid-April next year. The key event for Settebello and for the whole of Italy in swimming and water sports in 2025 will be the World Championships which will be held from 11 July to 3 August in Singapore. The Italian water polo players have already qualified.

Suspension, in fact, is a disqualification. From today and for the next 6 months, Settebello will not be able to play official matches. The Italian men’s water polo national team was also fined 50,000 dollars to be paid by 15 January 2025. There is another 50,000 dollars (approximately 46,200 euros) conditional on future infringements committed by 17 October 2026. The protest exploded after the serious technical error of the referees and VAR which compromised the Olympic path of the Settebello who was eliminated in the quarter-finals against Hungary.

What happened in Paris

On 9 August during the semi-final valid for places from fifth to seventh against Spain, the Italian players lined up with their backs to the jury during the national anthem. Subsequently Francesco Condemi, the player who had been disqualified in the previous match, lost against Hungary, and decisive for the Settebello’s path towards the medal zone, had won the sprint for the first ball in the center but then stopped symbolically.

In turn, Settebello’s technical commissioner, Alessandro Campagna, had called a time-out, replacing the attacker with player Francesco Di Fulvio who had voluntarily remained out of the water for four actual minutes, leaving the team numerically inferior. A consequence of what happened on Wednesday 7 August in the Italy-Hungary match. The appeals made by the Federnuoto in the 36 hours following the match against the Hungarians, all rejected, had led to the admission by the relevant World Aquatics bodies of the lack of violence and intentionality in Condemi’s action. The Italian was not disqualified for the following matches.

As Federnuoto reports, “the 3-3 scored by the Settebello striker against Hungary was valid and the striker should not have been sent off, Italy should not have played four minutes less, the Hungarians should not have benefited of the 4-2 penalty”. Following the suspension inflicted, the Italian Swimming Federation has announced that it will not present any further appeals. At the same time, the Fin reiterates “the need for the jury to have at its disposal technical tools of a high professional level, in order to avoid the possibility of repeating errors that are as sensational as they are harmful to the image of water polo”. In the three-year period 2021-2024 the Settebello coached by Alessandro Campagna won two world silver medals (finals lost on penalties in Budapest 2022 and Doha 2024), a European bronze (Zagreb 2024) and won the World League for the first time in history (2022 ).