In order to play for England you must fulfil two criteria:

1. Be a UK citizen
2. Have England as your Federation of Origin

The first is fairly straightforward. No one who is not currently a UK citizen will be selected for any England national team activities, and a UK passport is required to register for international competition.

The second requires some explanation.

Federation of Origin (FO)

Per the Section 2.4 of the FIVB Sports Regulations (available here), a player’s Federation of Origin is:

The Federation which is the first to issue a national license for the player or otherwise register the player within its Federation in the season in which the player turns fourteen (14) years of age (or older if first registered after the age of fourteen (14)…

For someone who has lived and played in England their whole life, this is not an issue. They will have their FO set to England the moment they have a Volleyball England membership during or subsequent to the season they turn 14. Please note, however, that Volleyball England membership is the specific triggering event. Being registered with a Region or County is not sufficient.

Things are trickier for someone who did not first establish England as their FO before playing in another country. If that participation did not involve a registration with that’s country’s Federation, then there’s no problem. The player can register with Volleyball England and set England as their FO.

If that participation did involve registration with that country’s Federation, though, the player’s FO has been set and would need to be changed for them to be eligible to compete for England. The process for doing so is outlined in Section 5 of the FIVB Sports Regulations. There is a fee involved.

The FIVB can sanction Federations quite severely if they field an ineligible player. As such, Volleyball England will need to be assured that a player’s FO is properly set to England before they are considered for national programme inclusion.

For players based in England

If you are eligible to play for England per the above, and would like to be considered to do so, there are two paths toward doing so.

• Those 18 and under: If you are still in the juniors age group, we require a club coach referral using this referral form. We do not accept direct player or parent referrals.
• Those 19 and Over: If you are playing in the National League and/or at a university you may ask your coach to refer you to the senior national team staff (they either have their details or know how to get them).

For players based outside of England

If you are currently based outside England, but are eligible to play for England as outlined above (or want to work toward becoming elgibile), please reach out to us at talent@volleyballengland.org.