The 2012 Men's Water Polo Olympic Qualification Tournament was held at the Kinsman Sports Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, from 1 to 8 April 2012.
There were 12 places originally allocated to continental associations in the tournament not already directly qualified to the Olympics – 5 from Europe, 3 from the Americas, 2 from Asia, 1 from Africa, and 1 from Oceania.
[1] Montenegro, Germany, Greece, Spain and Romania qualified from the 2012 European Water Polo Championships and confirmed their attendance at the tournament.
There was an article written by a FINA press correspondent in Japan showing confusion around the qualification procedure from the 2012 Asian Water Polo Championship, as the article states that the winners of the Asian Championship had advanced to this qualification tournament (in fact, they qualified directly for the Olympics) and that Japan could no longer get to the Olympics (in fact, according to FINA By-Laws, they were eligible for this tournament, and they did not apply).
As there were no remaining American, Asian, Oceanian, nor African teams making themselves available for selection, the next three places went to the three participants in the 2012 European Water Polo Championships that were not already either qualified for the Olympics or already in this tournament - the Netherlands, Macedonia and Turkey.