[1][2] Serbia ended up being champions, defending the title acquired the previous year and was the first team to qualify for the 2012 Olympic men's water polo tournament.
The American preliminary round was held in Costa Mesa, California, United States from May 13–15.
The Asia and Oceania region was feature a two-legged tournament, in Auckland, New Zealand (May 9–13) and Sydney, Australia (May 16–20).
[2] The four teams played a round robin in each location, with the results from both legs combined.
Rather than the condensed tournament style competition of the other continents, the European matches were played in a home-and-away format over five months.