The Netherlands ended a three-year absence from the FIVB Volleyball World League by returning in 2013 with a 14th-place finish. They finished fourth in Group 2 in 2014 after topping Pool E. The Dutch failed to qualify for the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship. In 2015, they finished second in World League Group 2’s Pool E with nine wins and three losses. They started with three straight victories before losing at home against Belgium in straight sets. They made another three-match winning run but Portugal were able to stop them before they won two more matches against Finland and Belgium for a joint-fifth finish. Coach Guido Vermeulen now guides the Dutch team.

The 1990s were a glorious decade for the Dutch. They finished second in the inaugural World League in 1990 and repeated the feat the following year. In 1992 they took silver at the Olympic Games in Barcelona and four years later they won gold at Atlanta as well as winning the World League title. They were runners-up at the 1994 World Championship and won two silver medals and two bronzes in successive European Championships from 1989 before taking gold on home soil in Eindhoven in 1997.