LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has taken Poland's plumbers and Sweden's au pairs, now it is using East European and Scandinavian handball players to help prepare the national team for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The seven-a-side game, which is neither quite basketball nor really netball, remains a minority sport in the UK, despite once challenging archery for popularity during the Middle Ages.

It achieved a meaningful revival after a group of Liverpool schoolchildren started playing on an exchange trip to Germany in 1967, but it has nevertheless remained a fringe sport.

Britain has never competed in handball at an Olympics, and will not be represented at Beijing this summer.

But it will compete in 2012 after UK Sport decided to enter every event as host nation.

About three million pounds has since been pumped into the game to help meet the target of a top eight place.

Played in 155 countries by tens of thousands of people, only 600 handball players are registered in the UK and many of these are from Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

"Handball is played in the streets over there like football is over here," said Frazer Snowdon of the British Handball Association.

"They play it from an early age, and it is part of the school curriculum."

Players who were born or brought up in handball-playing nations and who own a British passport are being recruited to the national team, helping to make up one of the world's most cosmopolitan squads.

Seven of the current national men's squad were either born or brought up in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Monaco or Egypt.

While at least five of the current women's squad were either born or brought up in Germany, Slovakia and Norway, including Britt Goodwin who plays for an elite team in Norway and who was, incidentally, a previous winner of that country's "Big Brother" reality TV show.

"There is a difference in standard between the British-born players and the players born abroad," the 24-year-old nurse said.

"I have been playing since the age of 10 and train every day.

"But the British-born players are getting better all the time. I hope we will be of Olympic standard by 2012."

Goodwin, who has never lived in Britain but whose parents are from Manchester, said she was not aware a British team existed until she got a phone call a year ago.

The British-born players are improving rapidly after many moved to a special training camp in Denmark where they train full time and compete in the local league.

Some of the national team's coaches are recruited from abroad, including Denmark's Jesper Holmris and Carsten Albrektsen.

"The British team would not get to the standard needed unless they had brought in foreign coaches," Goodwin added.

"They are so good -- they have done the job all their lives."

Potential national squad members are also recruited through a Talent ID programme, a series of trials held across the country, and the Sporting Giants scheme, run by former rowing gold medallist Steve Redgrave, which aims to recruit from different sports.

The game needs players who can run, catch and throw at speed and who enjoy a contact sport.

"It's an incredibly fast game," said Snowdon.

"People from rugby tend to do well because they can push players off, while those used to five-a-side football adapt quickly because they are used to the rule of having to shoot from outside the semi-circle."

Handball attracts thousands of fans in other parts of Europe, and the event will be held in front of 10,000 spectators during the London Games at a special venue within the Olympic Park.

The foreign influence has given handball a boost at grass roots level.

"I do not think it is an ideal situation, but you have to be pragmatic if you want success," said Peter Irving, chairman of Liverpool Handball Club.

"It has always been difficult to bring in people to such a minority sport in this country. The English have a lot of tunnel vision about trying alternative sports.

"But when we enter schools to recruit new players, we can point to those training and competing in Denmark and use it as a motivational tool."

Remi Bugariu, a Romanian self-employed builder, who is the men's secretary at the Great Dane handball club, one of England's best teams, said Britain's ambitions may prove to be too high.

But he added: "The team won't be embarrassed though because they have made progress during the past year or two."