The strongest club league in the world begins

The 2024/25 club season begins in full swing this coming weekend. Admittedly, we witnessed the first excitement last week, at the qualifying tournaments for the Champions League, but logically, not all clubs participated there yet.

Now, this coming Friday or Saturday (September 20 and 21), the strongest club league in the world - the Premier League - starts!

No, we have not lost sight of the Champions League and it is clear that it is an elite club competition, but with a slightly different system, competition format and significantly fewer games. They would even add that the concentration of quality in the Premier League is at least a shade stronger than the Champions League. We can argue that. It is a competition in which we will have the best players from Croatia and Serbia in action every weekend, in the pool, and that means the Olympic finalists from Paris. Not only that, but also world champions or European runners-up, which are Croatian water polo players. It is a league in which there are also very good foreigners, mostly national team players, players from countries whose clubs do not make up this league. Furthermore, this is a league in which as many as 5 Champions League participants will play (Jadran Split, Novi Beograd, Radnički, Jadran HN and Primorac), as well as both last season's Eurocup finalists (Jug Adriatic osiguranje and Primorje EB). A competition for which, on the eve of its start, we cannot determine a favorite for the top. We can't just because there are a lot of them! Mladost, our Adriatic, but also the Montenegrin one, and two teams from Serbia, Novi Beograd and Radnički, but also the trophy Jug Adriatic osiguranje, and even the champion of Montenegro, Primorac from Kotor. Each of the mentioned clubs has arguments for winning the title.

League system

Great news is certainly the return to the classic, league system of competition in which 12 clubs will play a total of 22 championship rounds. In other words, each club will play two games, home and away, against each of the remaining Premier League participants. Very simple, the most common and the easiest to follow. To everyone, from the clubs themselves to spectators, sponsors, media. The four best teams after the 22nd round will advance to the final tournament, which will be played in the pool of the first-placed team after the league stage.

The Premier League is returning to this type of competition system after four years of playing with a tournament system. As a reminder, the tournament mode of play was introduced in 2020 in the specific conditions of the pandemic, which did not last just one season. After that, the calendar of all water polo competitions in Europe and the world, club and representative, was so condensed that the tournament mode was then the only solution to maintain the league.

Croatian Championship

Very important - both regional leagues, both the Premier League which starts next Friday and Saturday, and the A1 League which starts at the beginning of October - count for the Croatian Championship at the same time. More precisely, the standings of Croatian clubs in both leagues (Premier and A1) also form a place in the playoffs of the Croatian Championship.

Specifically, the best-placed Croatian club in the Premier League is automatically in the playoffs of the Croatian Championship the club with, conditionally speaking, number 1. The second best Croatian club in this league is number 2, etc. There are 5 Croatian clubs in the Premier League, and more means that the best-ranked Croatian club in the A1 league is club number 6 in the playoffs of the Croatian Championship.

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Participants of the Premier League 2024/25

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Previous league winners

National Performance Ranking

Club performance scale