There is no offside; the receiving team must be in rotational order.

The rule and version used here

This page applies the FIVB Official Volleyball Rules 2025–2028 for six-player indoor volleyball. The rules were approved by the 39th FIVB World Congress in 2024 and apply to competitions beginning after 1 January 2025.

This is the international baseline, not a universal statement about beach volleyball, school rules, domestic leagues or modified youth formats. An appointed competition’s regulations can add a test or variation; the important 2026 FIVB test is identified separately rather than blended into the baseline.

Rotation creates relationships, not six boxes

FIVB Rule 7.4.1 numbers the front row 4–3–2 from left to right and the back row 5–6–1 from left to right:

• Front–back pairs: 4 with 5, 3 with 6, and 2 with 1.
• Front-row order: position 4 stays to the left of 3 and 2; position 2 stays to the right of 3 and 4.
• Back-row order: position 5 stays to the left of 6 and 1; position 1 stays to the right of 6 and 5.

There are no painted starting boxes and no minimum separation. Players may cluster, stand level or stretch a formation as long as the required relative foot relationships remain legal.

Each back-row player needs a legal foot behind the paired front-row player

Under Rules 7.4.2.1 and 7.4.3.1, each back-row player must be farther from the centre line than the corresponding front-row player. The precise foot test is forgiving: the back-row player is legal if at least part of one grounded foot is farther from the centre line than the front foot of the paired front-row player. Being level is also legal.

A player’s torso, hands or head may appear farther forward on television without creating a fault. Conversely, a player whose whole body looks “roughly behind” can still be illegal if the grounded feet fail the rule’s comparison.

The two rows keep their lateral order

Rule 7.4.3.2 applies a separate test within each row. A left-side player must have at least part of one grounded foot closer to the left sideline than the relevant feet of the other players in that row; the right-side player must do the equivalent at the right sideline. Level positions are legal.

This is why a receiver can begin well outside the court’s visual “thirds” and still be legal. The question is not whether position 4 occupies a left-hand zone, but whether the feet preserve position 4’s required relationship with positions 3 and 2.

Grounded feet decide the baseline call

FIVB Rule 7.4.3 tells officials to use the feet contacting the floor. If a player is airborne, the last contact with the floor fixes that player’s position for this test. A hand on the floor, a leaning shoulder or a head across an imaginary line does not determine rotational position.

The standard rule uses the service hit

In the unmodified FIVB 2025–2028 rules, the receiving team must remain in correct rotational order until the moment the server hits the ball. After that hit, Rule 7.4.4 allows both teams to move around and occupy any position on their own court and in the free zone.

Movement after the hit cannot cure a fault that already existed at the hit. Equally, crossing into a tactical formation immediately after a legal start is not an “overlap” merely because two players switch places.

The server’s teammates do not have an overlap test

The current FIVB Rule 7.4 expressly frees the serving team to occupy any position at the service hit. Its players may stack or cross rotational slots before the hit without committing a positional fault.

That freedom does not erase other service rules. The player due in position 1 must serve in the correct order, the server must execute the service legally, and teammates must not screen the receiver under Rule 12.5. A crowded serving formation may therefore be legal by position but faulty for a different reason.

A rotational fault is not a positional fault

FIVB Rule 7.7 calls it a rotational fault when the service is not made according to the service order. The scorer controls that order and signals the error after the service hit. The opponent gains a point and the next service, and the faulty team’s order is corrected.

If the error is discovered later, the scorer should identify when it began. The faulty team’s points from that moment are cancelled while the opponent’s points remain. If the start of the error cannot be established, no points are cancelled beyond the one point and service awarded for the fault.

The serve can change which fault counts

Rules 7.5.2–7.5.3 and 12.7 establish a specific sequence when the receiver is out of position:

• If the server is in the wrong order or executes the service improperly at the service hit, that serving fault takes priority over the receiver’s positional fault.
• If the service is correctly hit but later becomes faulty—for example, it goes out, fails to cross correctly or passes over a screen—the earlier receiving-team positional fault is sanctioned instead.

There is no advantage calculation that lets the rally result replace the first controlling fault. The rules identify which fault occurred first and award the rally accordingly.

Movement is free; front-row and back-row status is not

Rotational status comes from the line-up and rotation, not from where a player moves during the rally. A back-row player may move into the front zone to set or defend, but remains a back-row player for the attack and block restrictions in Rules 13 and 14.

For example, a back-row player commits an attack-hit fault by completing an attack from the front zone when the ball is entirely above the top of the net, and a back-row player may not complete or participate in a completed block. Those are later playing-action faults, not positional faults at service.

Different officials watch different parts

Under FIVB Rule 24.3.2.2, the second referee decides, whistles and signals positional faults of the receiving team. Under Rule 27.2.2.2, the scorer controls each team’s serving order and indicates an error immediately after the service hit.

A positional fault gives the opponent a point and the next service, and the receiving team’s positions must be rectified (Rule 7.5.4). Before a set begins, a mismatch between the players on court and the submitted line-up is normally corrected under Rule 7.3.5 before play, without a positional-fault sanction.

Some international events release receivers before the hit

On 27 February 2026, the FIVB Board of Administration approved an out-of-rotation test for the 2026 Volleyball Nations League, FIVB Volleyball U17 World Championships and 2026 Continental Championships. In those events, the receiving team must be in correct rotational order at the first referee’s whistle but may move once the server’s action begins.

The FIVB defines that release point as the server’s first service motion, including a first step or movement of the arms or legs to serve. This is an event-specific test, not replacement wording in the Official Volleyball Rules 2025–2028. Outside those named events, do not move the judgment point away from the service hit unless the appointed competition rules expressly adopt the variation.

The back-row setter looks ahead of a front-row player

Situation: under the standard FIVB 2025–2028 rules, the setter is in position 1 and leans toward the net beside position 2. At the service hit, part of one grounded foot remains farther from the centre line than position 2’s front foot.

Ruling: legal. The decisive fact is the foot relationship between the paired positions 1 and 2, not the setter’s torso or tactical destination.

Two receivers cross too early

Situation: under the standard FIVB 2025–2028 rules, position 5 moves completely to the right of position 6 before the ball is hit, and no grounded-foot relationship preserves their required left–right order.

Ruling: positional fault by the receiving team. The opponent gains a point and the next service, and the positions are corrected. The same crossing immediately after the service hit would be legal by position.

The serving side stacks at the net

Situation: three teammates of the correct server stand in an arrangement that does not preserve their rotational left–right order when the server hits the ball.

Ruling: no positional fault under the FIVB 2025–2028 baseline because the serving team has free positioning. Officials still judge whether the formation illegally screens the service hit and flight path under Rule 12.5.

The wrong server serves while the receiver overlaps

Situation: the service is made by a player out of rotational order, and the receiving team is also illegally positioned at the hit.

Ruling: sanction the serving team’s rotational fault. Under FIVB Rule 12.7.1, the wrong-order fault at the service hit takes priority over the opponent’s positional fault.

A receiver moves on the server’s first motion

Situation: in the 2026 Volleyball Nations League, the receiving team is correctly ordered at the referee’s whistle. A receiver crosses as the server begins the first arm movement, before ball contact.

Ruling: legal under the named 2026 FIVB test. The same timing is too early under the unmodified 2025–2028 rule, which releases the receivers only after the service hit.

How to judge a suspected overlap

1. Name the ruleset and event. Check whether the standard FIVB rule or the specified 2026 test applies.
2. Confirm the server. A wrong player serving is a rotational fault, not an overlap.
3. Freeze the correct moment. Use the service hit under the baseline; use the whistle and first service motion under the 2026 test.
4. Check the receiving team’s grounded feet. Compare pairs 4/5, 3/6 and 2/1, then the left–right order within each row.
5. Apply fault priority. Separate a fault in executing the serve from a serve that becomes faulty only after a correct hit.
6. Classify later play separately. Movement after release may be legal even though a later attack, block, screen or net action is not.

Five claims that produce the wrong call

• “That player was offside.” FIVB indoor volleyball uses position, rotation, attack, block and centre-line faults—not an offside rule.
• “Both teams must overlap correctly at the hit.” Under the current FIVB baseline, the serving team has free positioning.
• “Each player owns one-sixth of the court.” Rotation creates relative foot relationships, not fixed boxes.
• “A back-row player cannot move in front of the attack line.” The movement is legal after release; completing certain attacks or blocks is the restricted action.
• “An out serve cancels the receiver’s overlap.” After a correctly executed hit, the earlier positional fault takes priority.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• FIVB — Official Volleyball Rules 2025–2028, implemented after 1 January 2025: Rules 7.3–7.7, 12.2, 12.5, 12.7, 24.3.2.2 and 27.2.2.2
• FIVB Board of Administration — Rule tests for 2026 competitions, 27 February 2026: “Out of rotation error – free positioning of the receiving team”

Checked on 28 August 2026 against the current FIVB 2025–2028 rulebook and the official 2026 test notice. The baseline applies to six-player indoor volleyball; national federations and appointed competition regulations may supplement or vary it.