We are Team Nederland M+ Roller Derby. The open division team that will represent The Netherlands on the Men’s Roller Derby World Cup 2026.
The current team consists of a charter of 20 skaters and 3 reserves. They represent several leagues from across the Netherlands and one Belgian one. Currently, they are preparing for participation in the fourth Men’s Roller Derby World Cup, which will take place in Orléand, France, from 30 April until 3 May 2026.
These skaters meet monthly to train together, in addition to playing games and scrimmages against other–mostly national teams. They also work behind the scenes on marketing, merchandise, and fundraising for the team. Since roller derby is traditionally a DIY sport, skaters are collectively responsible for these tasks, in addition to self-funding their gear, travel, and dues. The team is therefore dependent on donations and sponsors to cover its costs.
The fourth Men’s Roller Derby World Cup will take place between 30 April – 3 May 2026 in Oréans, France. It’s the first world cup since 2018. The planned edition of 2020 could not be realized due to the corona pandemic. Previous editions of the Men’s Roller Derby World cup took place in 2012 (Birmingham), in 2016 (Calgary), and in 2018 (Barcelona). Team Nederland M+ competed in all organized editions so far.
In many sports the women’s team gets the prefix “women,” but in derby it is the men who generally get that prefix. The WFTDA, Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby Association, is the largest governing body of roller derby. Roller Derby teams that fall under WFTDA are open to cis women, trans women, trans men, intersex people, and non-binary people.
The Men’s Roller Derby World Cup is organized by the Men’s Roller Derby Association, MRDA. Altough their name contains ‘men’, they allow skaters ton compete regardless of gender and sex. Men’s Roller Derby is therefore de facto an open division. We use M+ to indicate that our team consists of men and people of other genders.
Roller derby is an amateur sport worldwide. There are some skaters at the highest level who earn money through coaching and hosting clinics, but there are no full-time professional derby players. Skaters run their own leagues, and even at the national level they arrange everything themselves, from training venues to media coverage and sponsorships. Team Nederland skaters, coaches and volunteers therefore pay and do everything themselves.
Team Nederland therefore has a sponsor- and fundraising committee, that tries to mobilise as much financial aid as possible to finance everything around the World Cup and the journey toward it.
The sport comes from the US, so the jargon is mostly in English. In addition, the sport is very diverse, and most Dutch teams draw skaters from different countries around the world. English is therefore convenient as the lingua franca of the sport.
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