Can You Play Volleyball With 5 Players? What the Rules Say

Thursday evening, two players pull out, and on Saturday at half past one you have to be on court. Can you play with five? Officially not — but exactly what happens to the result, and how much room the regulations give you, is a lot more nuanced than simply losing.

The official rule: six is six

A team plays with six players on court (rule 6.1.1). There is no provision that allows you to start with five, not even if both teams agree between themselves. The rules recognise two outcomes for a team that is not complete:

• Failure to appear (rule 6.4.2). A team that fails to appear on court on time without valid justification loses the match 0-3 in sets and 0-25 in each set.
• Declared incomplete (rule 6.4.3). A team that cannot be made complete during the match is declared incomplete for the set or the match. The opponent is awarded the points — and, if needed, the sets — they still required to win. The incomplete team keeps its own points and sets.

That last part is the difference coaches rarely know. If you are 1-2 down in sets and 22-19 up in the fourth when you lose a player with no substitute available, you are declared incomplete for that set: the opponent gets the points they still needed, your 22 points stay, and the set you won earlier remains yours. In a competition where set points count towards the table — such as the fixed four-set format used in Dutch regional competition — that makes a real difference in the standings.

Becoming incomplete during a set

This happens more often than you would think: an injury with no substitution options, or a player sent off after an expulsion. The protocol then runs:

1. The team tries to make a regular substitution within its six substitutions per set.
2. If that is not possible, an injury allows the exceptional substitution — see injury during a match.
3. If that is not possible either, the team is declared incomplete for that set.

Important: being incomplete for one set does not automatically end the match. If the player can take part again in the next set, or a substitute is available by then, the team simply plays on.

Koach's match availability tells you on Wednesday whether you will actually have six players on Saturday — early enough to do something about it.

What you can actually do

The rules of the game leave no room; competition regulations do. Three routes that are entirely normal in league play:

• Borrow players from another team in your club. Most regulations allow players from a lower team to fill in, with limits on how often that is allowed and on players from higher teams. Check your regional regulations and division structure every season; this is where the details genuinely differ.
• Move the match. In cases of force majeure you can request a new date, in consultation with the opponent and the competition organiser. Do that as early as possible — a request on Friday evening is rarely granted.
• Play anyway and accept the result. Some teams turn up with five, play the match as a friendly and accept the official result. That only works if the opponent and the referee go along with it, and it is separate from what ends up on the scoresheet.

What you never do: pull somebody out of the stands who is not eligible to play. That is not a solution, it is a second offence.

Recreational leagues, tournaments and mini volleyball

Outside regular league play the arrangements are different. Recreational and corporate leagues often have their own provision allowing play with five, sometimes with an empty slot or with an adapted rotation. Tournament regulations regularly set a minimum of four or five players. And in mini volleyball you play with smaller teams anyway, building up from 2 v 2 to 4 v 4, with their own rules per level. All those exceptions are local arrangements, not FIVB rules — they only apply if they are written into that competition's regulations.

How to prevent it

Almost every incomplete team is a planning problem, not bad luck. Three things that work: ask for match availability from two weeks out instead of two days; agree at the start of the season who your regular fill-ins are and whether they are genuinely available; and keep track of which players habitually pull out late — that solves more than a flurry of panic messages. How to track it across a season is in tracking match availability.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

Match attendance: who was (not) there? How many substitutions in volleyball? 6 per set: the rules Volleyball rules: all the rules of the game at a glance (2026)