Futsal


Futsal is a scaled-down variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game of association football, and it also shares similarities with five-a-side football and indoor soccer.
Futsal players, one of whom on each team is the goalkeeper, mainly use their feet to propel a ball around the court with the objective of scoring goals against the opposing team by moving the ball beyond the goal line into the opposing team's goal. A futsal match consists of two periods of 20 minutes, and the team that scores more goals wins; an equal number of goals scored results in a draw. Futsal is played with a smaller and heavier ball than association football, and usually indoors on a hardcourt surface marked by lines.
The playing surface, ball, and rules favour ball control and passing in small spaces. For these reasons, futsal is commonly used by coaches as a means to develop association football players. Futsal is played worldwide, but it is most popular in South America and the Iberian Peninsula, where there are many professional teams. In much of the rest of the world, the sport is primarily amateur or recreational.

Name

Futsal comes from the Portuguese futebol de salão and from the Spanish fútbol sala or fútbol de salón, all translatable as "indoor football". The term may have been coined by a Brazilian journalist in the 1960s. Due to a dispute between FIFA and FIFUSA in the 1980s over the use of the word "football", FIFUSA started using the term futsal during its 1985 World Championship in Madrid, Spain. However, FIFA, which started organising its own international futsal tournaments in 1989, also adopted the term in the 1990s. Since then, futsal has become the officially and internationally accepted name.

History

Origins

Futsal started in 1930 in Montevideo, Uruguay, when a physical education teacher named created a version of indoor football for YMCAs.
Originally developed for basketball courts, a rule book for the sport was published in September 1933. Association football was already highly popular in the country, and after Uruguay won gold medals in the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics, and the 1930 FIFA World Cup, it attracted even more practitioners. Ceriani's goal was to create a team game similar to football that could be played indoors or outdoors.
While writing the rule book, Ceriani combined the principles of association football—where the ball may be touched with every part of the body except the hands and arms—with rules from other sports: from basketball, the number of players and the game's duration ; from water polo, the goalkeeping rules; from hockey, the substitution rules; and from handball, the field and goal sizes.
The YMCA spread the game quickly throughout South America. Futsal was a more accessible and less physically demanding sport than association football that could be played indoors. It even helped players of other sports stay in shape year-round. These reasons convinced João Lotufo, a Brazilian, to bring the game to his country and adapt it to the needs of physical education.
In 1956, the rules were modified by Habib Maphuz and Luiz Gonzaga Fernandes within the YMCA of São Paulo, Brazil, to allow seniors to compete. This YMCA also published, in the same year, a book of the "Brazilian Indoor Football Rules", which was adopted by other South American countries as well.
In 1965, the was created, consisting of Uruguay, Peru, Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. Shortly after, a tournament was organised. It attracted interest from South American media, which began to cover futsal regularly. In the 1960s, Brazilian journalist José Antônio Inglêz contributed to the spread of the game, and he may have coined the term "futsal", although it did not come into widespread use until the 1980s.

Governance disputes and international growth

In 1971, the International Federation of Indoor Football was formed, comprising Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal and Uruguay. FIFUSA organised the first Futsal World Championship in 1982 in São Paulo. Shortly after, FIFA took an interest in futsal, but talks between the two organisations to reconcile governance were unsuccessful.
In 1985, FIFUSA organised its second world championship in Madrid, Spain. FIFA tried to prohibit FIFUSA from using the word "football", even in Spanish, in the tournament's title. To date most people in Spain call the game Futbol Sala. The term FUTSAl was first used by then the United States Minisoccer Federation, when its Vice-President thought that an international name that would not change, regardless of the language should be used. He came out with the term FUTSAL and proposed it to the board of USMF. The board of the U.S. Minisoccer Federation approved the new name since it included in it the word USA. The Federation changed its corporate name in the State of California in 1986 to the United States Futsal Federation. Upon joining FIFA, Alex Para proposed to FIFA President Havelange in 1989 that the name FUTSAL should be used for the FIFA 2nd World Cup, which was being named the 5-a-side FIFA World Cup. For logistical reasons, it was not late, but FIFA started using it in the 3rd. World Cup in Spain in 1996. FIFUSA then resorted to using the term futsal in the, blending futbol and sala. The term, "futsal" has become the sport's most common name.
Since the early 1990s, most national futsal associations have decided to join FIFA, weakening FIFUSA. In late 2002, FIFUSA was reorganised into the World Futsal Association, with its headquarters in Asunción, Paraguay. AMF continues to develop its own version of futsal and to stage its own tournaments in association with affiliated organisations.
The highest-attended futsal match in history took place on 7 September 2014 at the Mané Garrincha Stadium in Brasília, where 56,483 spectators watched Brazil face Argentina in a friendly match.
File:2025 FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup Philippines v Poland.jpg|thumb|Philippines–Poland match during the first edition of FIFA Women's World Cup in 2025
Futsal is a popular global sport, with over 30 million players worldwide as of 2024, according to FIFA. Due to its easy setup, enhanced accessibility, technical demands, and lower physical requirements, futsal has become an essential resource for coaches aiming to develop football players.
In December 2022, FIFA announced the women's version of the FIFA Futsal World Cup. The inaugural edition was held in the Philippines from 21 November to 7 December 2025.

Gameplay

FIFA's version of futsal is played in accordance with the "Futsal Laws of the Game", which are based on IFAB's Laws of the Game, the ruleset for association football. The game is played with a spherical ball of circumference. Two teams of five players each compete to get the ball into the other team's goal, thereby scoring a goal. The team that has scored more goals at the end of the game is the winner; if both teams have scored an equal number of goals then the game is a draw. The primary law is that players other than goalkeepers may not deliberately handle the ball with their hands or arms during play. Although players usually use their feet to move the ball around, they may use any part of their body other than their hands or arms.
A futsal ball is smaller and heavier than a regular football, with a lower bounce. Consequently, it stays mostly on the ground, which means that "heading" is less common than in association football, and aerial duels are rare. Futsal shares similarities with other small-sided football variants, such as five-a-side football and indoor soccer. However, unlike those two games, there are no walls or boards around a futsal pitch; instead, boundaries are marked with lines on the floor, as in association football.
During game play, players attempt to create goal-scoring opportunities through individual control of the ball, such as by dribbling, passing the ball to a teammate, and by taking shots at the goal, which is guarded by the opposing goalkeeper. Opposing players may try to regain control of the ball by intercepting a pass or through tackling the opponent in possession of the ball; however, physical contact between opponents is restricted. Futsal is generally a free-flowing game, with play stopping only when the ball has left the field of play or when play is stopped by the referee for an infringement of the rules. After a stoppage, play recommences with a specified restart. There is no offside in futsal.
The Laws of the Game do not specify any player positions other than goalkeeper, but specialised roles have evolved. Usually, besides the goalkeeper, a futsal formation consists of a defender or fixo; two wingers or alas, each of whom mostly occupies the left or right side of the pitch; and a forward or pivot. There are no restrictions in movement, and outfield players can switch positions at any time. The goalkeeper may leave the goal untended and become an additional outfield player in the attacking half of the pitch, called a "flying goalkeeper", particularly in the last minutes of a match, when a team is already losing and is searching for an equaliser. Defining the team's formation and tactics is usually the prerogative of the team's head coach.
Due to the smaller dimensions of the pitch, futsal matches produce more goals on average than association football matches. Futsal is also perceived as being faster-paced than football because of both the pitch dimensions and the unlimited substitutions rule. The playing surface, ball and rules favour ball control and passing in small spaces. The game also emphasises improvisation, creativity and technique. Futsal is played professionally in a few countries such as Brazil, Portugal and Spain, but it is mostly an amateur or recreational sport in the rest of the world.