What is FUTSAL? 

The name 'Futsal' simply combines the Spanish words for ‘Hall’ – Sala and ‘Football’ – Futbol into Futsal. It is a five-a-side game, played with hockey sized goals and a smaller ball with a reduced bounce. 

Futsal originates from the South American countries of Uruguay and Brazil in the 1930’s. In Brazil, a version of the game began to develop on the streets of Sao Paulo, leading to the first rules of the game in 1936 from the country that would soon become the masters of the game and above all masters of entertaining football.

Ronaldo, a player produced from Futsal

Futsal spread from the South American continent and it’s popularity grew and a governing body, The International Federation for Futebol de Sala, FIFUSA was officially formed in Brazil in 1971 and the first FIFUSA world championships was held in Sao Paulo with the hosts taking the title. The game continued to grow under FIFUSA with even more countries participating in the second world championships that took place in 1985, this time hosted in Madrid and Futsal had captured Europe.

Futsal is essentially 5-aside football but with some notable differences to how we   play 5-aside in England. The 5-aside we are used to is the type you may see at Powerleague, where the focus is quick energetic football with the overhead height rule, the semi-circle penalty area in which players are not allowed to enter and goalkeepers not allowed to exit, the standard size 5 ball, players smashing the ball off the wall and a very physical type of game thus not allowing players to express individual skill, loose ball control and most annoyingly players being pushed against the walls and cornered leading to absolutely NOTHING!

But FUTSAL is different, players are allowed to play in the semi-circle penalty area, goal-keepers are can advance beyond the penalty area, there is a touchline, encouraging close control, there is no physical emphasis, in fact physical play is not allowed. FUTSAL has been designed to provide a high paced, energetic, fast flowing game for spectators at the same time as allowing players to be at their most creative by protecting those showing attacking flair.

The end-to-end, non-stop, goalmouth action has proven a hit with the fans as the number of professional leagues and the world game grows every year. Russia, Portugal, Italy, Brazil and Argentina all have professional leagues along with Spain, the current World Champions, whose league regularly attracts over thirty thousand spectators a week to it’s games.