1979 FINA Men's Water Polo World Cup

The 1979 FINA Men's Water Polo World Cup was the first edition of the event, organised by the world's governing body in aquatics, the International Swimming Federation (FINA). The event took place in Rijeka and in the Tašmajdan Swimming Pool in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Participating teams were the eight best teams from the last World Championships in Berlin, West Germany (1978). The teams played a round robin to decide the first ever winner of what would be a bi-annual event until 1999.

Results Matrix

	HUN	USA	YUG	URS	FRG	ITA	ROU	BUL
Hungary		4 – 3	7 – 8	4 – 3	4 – 4	5 – 2	5 – 4	8 – 4
United States	3 – 4		4 – 6	6 – 3	4 – 2	9 – 4	8 – 4	6 – 3
Yugoslavia	8 – 7	6 – 4		1 – 5	3 – 4	7 – 6	6 – 4	7 – 2
Soviet Union	4 – 5	3 – 6	5 – 1		9 – 4	6 – 6	3 – 2	5 – 1
West Germany	4 – 4	2 – 4	4 – 3	4 – 9		5 – 4	4 – 4	6 – 3
Italy	2 – 5	4 – 9	6 – 7	6 – 6	4 – 5		8 – 8	10 – 5
Romania	4 – 5	4 – 8	4 – 6	2 – 3	4 – 4	8 – 8		3 – 3
Bulgaria	4 – 8	3 – 6	2 – 7	1 – 5	3 – 6	5 – 10	3 – 3

Final standings

	Team	Points	G	W	D	L	GF	GA	Diff
1.	Hungary	11	7	5	1	1	37	28	+9
2.	United States	10	7	5	0	2	40	26	+14
3.	Yugoslavia	10	7	5	0	2	38	32	+6
4.	Soviet Union	9	7	4	1	2	35	25	+10
5.	West Germany	8	7	3	2	2	29	31	–2
6.	Italy	4	7	1	2	4	40	45	–5
7.	Romania	3	7	0	3	4	30	38	–8
8.	Bulgaria	1	7	0	1	6	21	45	–24

Final ranking

RANK	TEAM
	Hungary
	United States
	Yugoslavia
4.	Soviet Union
5.	West Germany
6.	Italy
7.	Romania
8.	Bulgaria

1979 Men's FINA World Cup Winners
Hungary First title