Water polo table officials: what the secretary and timekeepers do

Who sits at the table, and who keeps which clock

A water polo game is controlled by referees on the pool deck and by timekeepers and secretaries at the official table, and the rules give the table its jobs by crew size (Rule 20.5.1.1 of the World Aquatics Water Polo Rules, in force from 25 June 2025, the edition every rule number here refers to). The surprise for anyone used to other sports is the smallest crew: with one timekeeper and one secretary, it is the secretary who records the periods of actual play, the time-outs and the intervals, and the exclusions as well. The timekeeper runs only the possession clock.

Whatever the crew, the duties are the same list (Rules 20.5.4 and 20.5.5). The timekeepers record actual play, time-outs and intervals, the possession time, and the exclusion and re-entry times; they announce the start of the last minute of the game aloud, and whistle after 45 seconds and at the end of each time-out. The secretaries keep the record of the game, control the exclusions and their flags, and signal improper re-entries and third personal fouls. Two people is the working minimum; one person cannot run two clocks and write at the same time.

The game clock runs in actual play

A game is four periods of eight minutes of actual play (Rule 4.1). Time starts each period when a player touches the ball, and "at all signals for stoppages, the time shall be stopped until the ball is put back into play", which means when the ball leaves the hand of the player taking the throw, or is touched after a neutral throw. Every whistle stops the clock, so the person on it watches the ball, not the referee.

The timekeeper's end-of-period whistle takes effect at once, independently of the referees, with two exceptions (Rule 20.5.4.2). If a referee awards a penalty throw at the same moment, the throw is still taken: everyone except the thrower and the goalkeeper leaves the field of play, and a rebound is dead (Rule 15.6). And if the ball is already in flight and crosses the goal line, the goal counts.

The possession clock: 28 and 18

A team may keep the ball for 28 seconds of actual play without shooting (Rule 4.1.1), and the visible clock counts down. What makes the job hard is the resets, because the clock goes to one of two values depending on what happened (Rule 8.12).

After a shot the clock does not restart until one team has the ball. In the last minute of the game, a coach awarded a penalty throw may choose to keep the ball instead and take a free throw, and the possession clock is then reset to 28 (Rule 15.7).

Two printings that disagree

Two copies of the rules headed "In force as from 25 June 2025" differ on exactly these numbers. In the extract posted by the British Water Polo League, Rule 8.12(a) resets the clock to 15 seconds after a rebound to the attacking team and Rule 15.7 to 25 seconds. In the English edition posted by the Serbian federation they read 18 and 28, which is what World Aquatics announced when its Bureau approved the changes in May 2025: the second-possession time "eighteen (18) seconds rather than fifteen (15) seconds" (Total Waterpolo). A table working from the first printing will reset to the wrong number twice a game.

Exclusions: the 18 seconds and who ends them

An exclusion is not a fixed penalty, and the table does not end every one. The excluded player swims to the re-entry area nearest their own goal line, and may come back, or be replaced, "after the earliest occurrence" of four things (Rule 9.3): 18 seconds of actual play; a goal, by either team; the excluded player's team retaking possession; or that team being awarded a free throw, goal throw or penalty throw.

Each of those has its own signaller. The secretary controls the exclusion time and raises the flag when the 18 seconds are up. When the team wins the ball back, the defensive referee signals the re-entry with a hand signal, not the table (Rule 20.5.5.1b). After a goal there is no signal at all: the player may re-enter from any place.

Two exclusions do not follow this. A player excluded for violent action is out for the game and may be replaced only after four minutes of actual play, which no goal or turnover shortens (Rules 9.14.1 and 10.12); the secretary then raises the yellow flag with the team's flag. And when players of both teams are excluded at the same moment, both may come back at 18 seconds, at a goal, or at the next change of possession (Rule 9.15); if one team had the ball, the possession clock is not reset.

Improper re-entry

A player who comes back before the exclusion is over, or a substitute who enters wrongly, is the secretary's to call: red flag and whistle, which stops play at once (Rule 20.5.5.1c). It is a penalty foul, the player receives one personal foul marked as a penalty foul, and must leave before the penalty throw is taken (Rule 10.12). Since 2025 this is a single call; the rules used to treat an illegal seventh player and a wrong re-entry with or without the ball in three different ways.

The flags

The secretary is given white, blue, red and yellow flags, each 0.35 by 0.20 metres (Rule 20.4.1.8). The rules allow "another approved method of signalling" for each one, such as a light or a board, but the meanings stay the same.

The first team listed in the programme wears white caps, or its country's colour, and starts to the left of the table; the other wears blue or a contrasting colour (Rule 6.1). That is why the exclusion flags are white and blue.

Personal fouls and the record of the game

The secretary's record covers "the players, the score, timeouts, exclusion fouls, penalty fouls, and personal fouls awarded against each player" (Rule 20.5.5.1a). A personal foul is recorded against any player who commits an exclusion foul or a penalty foul, and the referee shows the secretary the cap number (Rule 16.1). Ordinary fouls are not recorded against anyone.

The third personal foul ends the player's game, and the table is where that is noticed. The player is excluded for the rest of the game with a substitute after the earliest re-entry occurrence, or immediately if the third was a penalty foul (Rule 16.2), and the secretary signals it "without delay". A personal foul is not recorded for a coach's illegal time-out or for a coach or official delaying the game, even though both give the other team a penalty throw (Rules 10.9 and 10.10).

If part of a game has to be replayed, the goals, personal fouls and time-outs in that time come off the sheet, but exclusions for violent action, misconduct and red cards stay on it (Rule 4.4).

Time-outs

Each team may ask for two one-minute time-outs a game, at any time including straight after a goal, but not during a VAR review, and only the coach of the team with the ball may ask (Rule 5.1). The coach calls "timeout" with the T signal, or uses an authorised device, and the secretary or referee stops the game at once. The timekeeper whistles after 45 seconds and again at the end.

Two wrong requests have set outcomes. A time-out asked for by the coach of the team without the ball is a penalty throw to the other team, and that coach loses any legal time-out left (Rule 5.4). A time-out asked for by the team with the ball when it has none left gives the ball to the opponents at the half-distance line (Rule 5.3). The coach's challenge is not a time-out: the coach throws a green flag and makes the square signal, and the referee stops the game at an appropriate moment (Appendix 10).

The penalty shootout

A game level at full time goes to a penalty shootout after a three-minute break (Rule 4.3 and Appendix 6). Five shooters from each team stay in the water and shoot alternately from the 5 m line, and the order they shoot in the first round is the order for the rest; no list is written down beforehand. The secretary records the cap number of each shooter, and with the delegate checks that none has three personal fouls, a red card or an injury (Appendix 6, 20.6.1.1 and 20.6.2.6). "The secretary and the delegate control the correct order of the shooters and the score."

If it is still level after five each, the same five shoot again in the same order until one team misses and the other scores. A goalkeeper excluded during the shootout can be replaced in goal by one of the five shooters, without a goalkeeper's privileges.

What changed at the table in 2025

World Aquatics changed the numbers twice in 2025: a trial at the World Cup tournaments early in the year, and the rules in force from 25 June 2025 (the Technical Water Polo Committee's December 2024 summary and the Bureau decision of May 2025). Any table guide written before then, and several since, still gives the old figures.

The coach's challenge is new in 2025 too. The coach signals it with a green flag and the square sign, and since the May 2025 decision no longer presses the time-out button or sounds a horn for it. Water Polo Australia's "Water polo in Australia" explainer, uploaded in March 2026, still gives a three-minute half-time. US high school and college desks work to the NFHS and NCAA rulebooks, which set their own times and procedures, so a desk manual from those codes is not a guide to a World Aquatics game.

What to bring to the table

A table without an electronic board needs:

• a stopwatch for the game clock, which stops at every whistle;
• a second stopwatch or a possession clock counting down from 28;
• a third watch, or a board with the times written down, for exclusions, since several can run at once;
• the white, blue, red and yellow flags, and a whistle;
• the game sheet with both rosters by cap number, and a pen.

Simple Online Counter is a free, browser-based set of counters, and its water polo score counter keeps the game clock, the possession clock and the exclusions on one screen: it ends each exclusion at 18 seconds of play, at a goal or when you tap Ball won, counts personal fouls by cap until the third, and runs the shootout with the players who may not shoot. It records what you tap and does not replace the official game sheet.