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Futsal is a 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 is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is the goalkeeper. The players 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.
Originally developed for , 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 (five per team) and the game's duration (40 active minutes); 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.
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. FIFUSA then resorted to using the term futsal, blending futbol and sala. 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 sport's most common name.
Since the late 1980s, most national futsal associations have decided to join FIFA, weakening FIFUSA. In late 2002, FIFUSA was reorganised into the World Futsal Association (AMF in the Spanish abbreviation), 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 Exhibition game.
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 will be held in the Philippines from November to December 2025.
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 (same number of players) and indoor soccer (similar playing surface). 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 gameplay, 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.
FIFA publishes its futsal rules as the "Futsal Laws of the Game", where each of the 17 "laws" is a thematically-related collection of individual regulations. The laws define all aspects of the game, including some that can be changed to suit local competitions and leagues. Many of the laws are similar or identical to those found in association football, or reference association football in their absence (such as a section noting that there is no offside infraction in futsal). Some of the rules require subjective interpretation by the referees.
The kit is made up of a jersey or shirt with sleeves, shorts, socks, made out of metal, plastic or foam, and shoes with rubber soles. The goalkeepers are allowed to wear long trousers and must wear different coloured kits to distinguish themselves from the other players on the pitch and the referees. All players are allowed to wear "non-dangerous protective equipment" such as gloves, soft headgear, knee and arm pads. Jewellery is not allowed, nor are other items that could be dangerous to the player wearing the item or to other participants.
The match is controlled by the referee, who enforces the Laws of the Game, and the first referee is the only one who can legally abandon the match because of interference from outside the field. This referee is assisted by a second referee who typically watches over the goal lines or assists the primary referee with calls on fouls or plays. The decisions made by the referees are final and can only be changed if the referees think it is necessary and play has not restarted. There is also a third referee and a timekeeper (both are required for international matches, but may be absent in other events) who are provided with equipment to keep a record of fouls in the match. In the event of injury to the second referee, the third referee will replace the second referee.
A rectangular goal is positioned at the middle of each goal line. The inner edges of the vertical goalposts must be apart, and the lower edge of the horizontal crossbar supported by the goalposts must be above the ground. Nets made of hemp, jute or nylon are attached to the back of the goalposts and crossbar. The lower part of the nets is attached to curved tubing or another suitable means of support. The depth of the goal is at the top and at the bottom.
In front of each goal is an area known as the penalty area. This area is created by drawing quarter-circles with a radius from the goal line, centred on the goalposts. The upper part of each quarter-circle is then joined by a line running parallel to the goal line between the goalposts. The line marking the edge of the penalty area is known as the penalty-area line. The penalty area marks where the goalkeeper is allowed to touch the ball with their hands. The penalty mark is six metres from the goal line when it reaches the middle of the goalposts. The second penalty mark is from the goal line when it reaches the middle of the goalposts. A penalty kick from the penalty spot is awarded if a player commits a foul inside the penalty area. The second penalty spot is used for a direct free kick awarded to the opposing team when a player commits their team's sixth or any subsequent fouls in a period.
In some competitions, a match cannot end in a draw. The away-goals rule, extra time and penalties (penalty shoot-out) are the only three methods that can be used to determine the winner after a match has been drawn. Away goals mean that if the aggregate score is level after each team has played one home and one away game, then the team that scored more away goals is declared the winner. Extra time consists of two periods of five minutes. If no winner is produced after these two methods, five kicks from the penalty mark are taken alternately by the two teams, and the team that has scored the most wins. If it is not decided after five kicks, it continues to go on with one extra kick from the penalty mark to each team at a time until one of them has scored more goals than the other. Unlike extra time, the goals scored in a shoot-out do not count towards the goals scored throughout the match.
If the ball goes completely over the goal line or touchline, hits the ceiling, or play is stopped by the referee, the ball is out of play. When the ball goes over the touchline, play is restarted with a kick-in to the opponents of the team that last touched it, taken from the touchline at the point where the ball left the pitch. If it hits the ceiling of an indoor arena, play is also restarted with a kick-in to the opponents of the team that last touched the ball, under the place nearest to where it hit the ceiling.
When the ball goes over the goal line and a goal is not scored, if it was last touched by an attacking player, play is restarted with a goal clearance taken by the goalkeeper, who must use their hands to throw or release the ball from the penalty area. If the ball was last touched by a defending player, play is restarted with a corner kick to the opposing team, taken from the corner arc nearest to where the ball left the pitch.
Excluding a dropped ball, in all these situations, the ball is in play as soon as it is kicked (thrown or released in a goal clearance) and clearly moves; the player who puts the ball into play cannot touch it again before it touches another player; and play must be restarted "within four seconds of the team being ready to put the ball into play". Goals cannot be scored directly from a kick-in or a goal clearance. The ball must be stationary before every restart that involves a kick, including .
The direct free kick is taken where the infringement occurred, unless it is awarded to the defending team in their penalty area, in which case the free kick may be taken from anywhere inside that area. A penalty kick is awarded to the opposing team if a player commits one of the fouls that are punishable by a direct free kick inside their own penalty area. The position of the ball at the moment that the foul occurs does not matter as long as it is in play.
An indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a goalkeeper releases the ball and then touches it again with their hands before another player has touched it, if the goalkeeper handles the ball after it has been kicked to them by a team-mate, if the goalkeeper receives a pass from a team-mate in their own half for a second time before it has touched an opponent, or if they touch or control the ball with hands, arms or feet in their own half for more than four seconds.
An indirect free kick is also awarded to the opposing team if someone plays in a dangerous manner, deliberately obstructs an opponent, prevents the goalkeeper from throwing the ball with their hands, or if anything else happens for which play must be stopped to caution or dismiss a player. The indirect free kick is taken from the place where the infringement occurred, unless it occurred inside of the penalty area, in which case it is taken from anywhere in that area if the foul was committed by the attacking team, or from the penalty-area line if it was committed by the defending team. A goal may not be scored from an indirect free kick without the ball touching another player.
Penalty card are used in futsal. The yellow card is used to caution players over their actions. If a player is shown two yellow cards in the same match, they are then shown a red card, which means that they are sent off the field. A yellow card is shown to a player who displays unsporting behaviour, dissent, and persistent infringement of the Laws of the Game, or delays the restart of play, fails to respect the distances from the ball when play is being restarted, infringes the substitution procedure or enters, re-enters and leaves the field without the referees' permission.
A player is shown a red card directly (without receiving a second yellow) and sent off if they engage in serious foul play, violent conduct, or spit at another person. Other actions punishable by a red card include denying the opposing team a goal or an obvious goalscoring opportunity by committing certain direct-free-kick fouls, such as by handling the ball (except a goalkeeper inside their own penalty area), and using offensive, insulting or abusive language or gestures. A player who has been sent off must leave the vicinity of the pitch.
A substitute is permitted to come on two minutes after a team-mate has been sent off, unless a goal is scored before the end of the two minutes. If the team with more players scores against the team with fewer players, then a substitute can replace the sent-off player immediately. If the teams are equal when the goal is scored or if the team with fewer players scores, both teams remain with the same number of players until the two minutes have elapsed.
The FIFA headquarters are located in Zürich, Switzerland. Six regional confederations are associated with FIFA; these are:
The International Futsal Alliance (IFA) is a partnership of countries formed to offer high quality futsal tournaments throughout the world. It sees itself as ancillary rather than competing with FIFA. Its membership spans countries from North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Several tournaments have been organised under the auspices of IFA, including a World Cup for men held in 2019 and one for women held in 2017.
National football associations or federations are responsible for managing futsal in their own countries both professionally and at an amateur level, and for coordinating competitions in accordance with the Futsal Laws of the Game.
| World | AMF Futsal World Cup | FIFA Futsal World Cup | |
| Asia | AFC Futsal Asian Cup |
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| Africa | Futsal Africa Cup of Nations | ||
| North America, Central America and Caribbean | CONCACAF Futsal Championship |
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| South America | Copa América de Futsal |
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| Oceania | OFC Futsal Nations Cup | ||
| Europe | UEFS Futsal Men's Championship | UEFA Futsal Championship |
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| Futsal 5 A-Side Australia Interstate Club Championship | |
| AFC Futsal Club Championship AFF Futsal Cup | |
| TSC Futsal League | |
| | | || UEFA Futsal Champions League || | |
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