Keen to emphasise the South American roots of a sport that the likes of Ronaldo, Denilson and Roberto Carlos all grew up playing, Futsal was the name chosen by FIFA for the only version of 5-aside football that it supports, when it took over as the governing body of the sport in 1989.
After the first FIFA Futsal World Championships that took place in the Netherlands in the same year, Futsal began to increase in stature as more and more Associations began to adopt the sport, keen to take advantage of it’s benefits in developing players for the bigger game. Individual close ball skills are developed through an increased number of touches during the game, whilst players are nearly always placed in reduced space situations and are constantly forced to make decisions demanding speed of thought and quick reflexes.
Essentially 5-aside but with some twists on how the game is currently played across most of England, 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 in 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.
Futsal is also set to explode onto the football scene in Asia with Iran already boasting a professional league and countries such as Japan, Malaysia, Thailand all keen to follow. Chinese Taipei will also be hosting the fifth FIFA World Championships in December 2004, which will see almost 90 associations take part in the qualifying stages, an increase on the 64 that took part in the qualifying for the 2000 Championships held in Guatemala.
Futsal fever is currently encapsulating most of the globe but it owes a great deal of its success and all of its appeal to the streets and playgrounds of South America were the game was first conceived.
South American Origins…
Futsal has it’s origins in the South American countries of Uruguay and Brazil where, in the 1930’s, two versions of small sided football were being played in the cities of Montevideo and Sao Paulo respectively.
In Montevideo, the Argentinean coach Juan Carlos Ceriani developed an indoor version of the 11 aside game that could be played in youth competitions in the local YMCA’s.
Meanwhile in Brazil, a version began to develop on the streets of Sao Paulo, leading to the publishing of the first rules of the game in 1936 from the country that would soon become the masters of the game.
The sport began to spread from the South American continent and with it’s growing popularity came the need for a governing body and a World Championships. The International Federation for Futebol de Sala, FIFUSA, was officially founded in Brazil in 1971 and the first FIFUSA world championships were held in Sao Paulo with the hosts taking first place ahead of Paraguay and Uruguay. The Brazilians fielded stars from their 11-aside game that had been brought up playing the sport with amongst others Pele, Rivelino, Falcao and Zico demonstrating their skills as Futsal players.
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.
FIFA Takes Control…
It was becoming clear that the sport was beginning to outgrow FIFUSA and in 1989 FIFA took over as the governing body, abbreviating Futebol de Sala to ‘Futsal’ and organising the first FIFA Futsal World Championship held in the Netherlands in the same year.
Under FIFA’s control new rules were introduced aimed at improving the technical and aspects of the game for players and spectators alike. The ball was made slightly larger (increased to a size 4) but still weighted to reduce bounce, the linesmen were replaced with the second referee and unlimited substitutions were introduced.
FIFA’s relationships with its member associations enabled more and more countries to gain access to futsal knowledge and resources. This was no doubt a major factor in the increase in the number of participating nations in the fourth FIFA world championships held in Gautamala City in 2000, in which Spain ended the dominance of Brazil in world Futsal beating them in the final. This was the crowning glory on an excellent performance by all the UEFA Associations taking part.
UEFA Dominance…
The dominance of UEFA associations at the Guatemala finals did not come out of blue and was the result of a development plan that began in 1996 when UEFA, recognising the growth in Futsal across the continent in the early 1990’s, arranged a European tournament for national teams in Cordoba, Spain, which was eventually won by the hosts.
UEFA continued to build on the growing popularity of the game, organising the first European Championships back in Spain but this time in Granada, which the Russians won after a penalty shoot out. The tournament attracted record number of crowds and convinced UEFA to carry on with the development of the game, encouraging even more of it’s member associations to take part in the qualifying rounds of the second UEFA Championships held in Moscow in 2001.
In the same year, encouraged by the growth in stature of the domestic leagues in Europe, UEFA created the official European competition for futsal clubs – the UEFA Futsal Cup, with teams from member associations earning their right to play in the competition by winning the National League or Championship organised by their own association.
The UEFA Futsal Cup continued into it’s third year with the 2003-2004 competition again being dominated by the Spanish clubs. It was however, a landmark season for English Futsal as it was the first year that a team from England participated in the competition, having previously been noticeable by their absence from European Futsal.
Futsal in England…
Not played on any large scale, Futsal is still in the embryonic stages of development in England and, until the introduction of the first official National Championships organised by The FA in July 2003, had been left to individual groups of futsal pioneers to develop the game in their local areas, venturing abroad when they could to play the game at a more advanced level.
Kick-started firstly by the visit of the first international futsal team to English shores, when Tranmere Victoria hosted the Iranian National Futsal Team in October 2002 and then by the interest generated from a pilot futsal tournament hosted by Sheffield Hallamshire FA in the November of the same year, the Football Association began to put in place plans to take the game forward at a grass roots level in 2003 through the establishment of a National Championships and the participation of Tranmere Victoria in the 2003 – 2004 UEFA Futsal cup.
The first National Championships were played in July 2003, drawing teams from regional qualifying competitions in London, Cheltenham, Wirral, Sheffield and Grimsby, with Sheffield Hallam Futsal Club being crowned champions.
Just before the national Championships the first ever England Futsal team gathered, under Head Coach Graeme Dell, to take part in a major International Futsal Tournament taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The KL5’s saw 11 other teams, including Brazil, Argentina and Japan join England to compete for a $100,000 prize.
Since Kuala Lumpur the national futsal team programme has continued to move on, with the England team participating in the preliminary rounds for the 2005 UEFA Futsal Championship in January 2004.
This was a landmark event in the history of English Futsal, being the first time that an England National Team had competed in an official UEFA competition. Again under the guidance of Graeme Dell, and drawn against two other nations relatively new to the sport - Cyprus and Albania - England travelled to Albania keen to build on some encouraging performances in the KL5’s but narrowly lost out in both matches.
2004 promises to be an exciting year for Futsal in England with plans to continue with the development of Futsal at a national team and grass roots level so for more information about the laws of the game and how to get involved please read on.
Getting Involved
Understanding the Laws of the Game
The official rules for Futsal – ‘The FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game’ are published by FIFA and cover all aspects of the rules that the game should be played to and the disciplinary actions that players face when they infringe on those rules. There are 18 laws in all, ranging in focus from the technical requirements of the ball and pitch through to the exact workings of the accumulated foul rule. They are available to download from the FIFA website as a standalone publication - www.fifa.com/en/development/futsal/
As an initial introduction to these laws, the basic principals of the game that make it different from any other versions of 5-aside that you might have played are highlighted below:
- The pitch – Futsal is played on a marked pitch and the ball can go out of play.
- The ball - Is a fundamental factor in making the game and is by virtue of the laws of the game required to be a smaller, heavier, ‘low bounce’ version of 11 a-side ball
- Head height – There are no restrictions (apart form the ceiling of the sports hall!) as to how high the ball can be kicked in Futsal.
- Rotating substitutions – Up to 12 players can be used in one match and there is no limit on how long a player must stay on or off the pitch. Players must enter and leave the field of play via the ‘substitution zone’ that is marked on the pitch in front of the team’s benches.
- Kick-ins – In order to restart the game after a ball has gone out of play the ball is kicked back into play from the touchline and from corners. The ball must be placed stationary on the touchline and the feet of the player taking the kick-in must not cross the line.
- The 4 second rule – For kick-ins, free kicks, goal clearances and corner kicks the player in possession of the ball has 4 seconds to restart play which the referee will count with their fingers in the air. If play isn’t restarted within four seconds an indirect free kick will be awarded to the opposing team. The goalkeeper is not allowed to control the ball for more than 4 seconds in his own half.
- The 5m rule – Players are required to keep 5m from the player in possession of the ball on free kicks, corners, goal clearances, kick-ins and penalties.
- Goalkeepers – Goalkeepers are allowed to come out of and players are allowed to go into the penalty area. A goal clearance must be thrown out and the goalkeeper cannot touch the ball again until it has crossed into the opponents half or a member of the opposition has touched the ball
- Accumulated fouls – Each team will be allowed to give away 5 direct free kicks in each half, then on the sixth foul a direct kick is awarded to the opposing team and the defending team is not allowed to position any players (other than the goal keeper) between the ball and the goal. The kick may be take from the 10m mark or, if the foul was committed closer to the goal than the 10m mark, then the kick may be taken from the position where the foul took place.
- Real time – A Futsal match consists of two twenty minute halfs that are played real-time which means the clock stops whenever the ball goes out of play.
- Time outs – Each team is allowed a one-minute time out in each half lasting 60 seconds.
- Sliding Tackles – Sliding tackles are not allowed in Futsal but players ARE allowed to slide on the pitch, for example to stop the ball from going out of play. For a player sliding to be considered an offence, the tackler’s opponent must have possession of the ball. Referees will not give a foul for a slide if the opponent does not have possession of the ball.
- Red Cards – If a player is sent off then the team to which the player belongs must remain with 4 players until either two minutes have passed, or the opposition have scored a goal.
In an International Futsal match there are three referees and one timekeeper whose responsibilities are outlined below:
First referee – The first referee is responsible for controlling the match and has full authority to enforce the laws of the game. They will keep a record of the match and provide the appropriate authorities with a match report if required and will act as a timekeeper if one isn’t present.
Second referee – The second referee is also permitted to use his whistle to stop the game for any infringement of the laws and will ensure that the substitutions are carried out correctly.
Third referee - The third referee assists the timekeeper and the other referees by recording details of the game on the match report sheet such as times of goals, stoppages and the number of accumulated fouls. The third referee should also try to control the bench area for the two teams, only allowing the coach to stand a give instruction to the players.
Timekeeper – The time keeper is responsible for controlling the duration of the match by starting and stopping the clock when the ball goes in and out of play and the match is stopped by the referees. They also control the one-minute timeout and the two-minute effective time punishment period when a player has been sent off.
Starting to Play
Since the sport is only just beginning to develop in England, initially it may be difficult to find the facilities already established that will allow you to play futsal - but don’t be put off!
If you have found a local leisure centre with a hall or playing area that looks like it may be big enough, ask them if they could mark the pitch out with tape for you – even if it is only temporary at first.
Here are some answers to some commonly asked questions when first starting to play the game:
Can I play on Any Surface?
At an International level Futsal must be played on either a wooden floor or a suitable synthetic floor that is smooth and flat and does not restrict the roll of the ball. However, at any other level Futsal may be played on a variety of surfaces including Astroturf and grass.
Do I need to use a special type of ball?
Yes, Futsal balls are smaller than eleven aside balls and are made with a reduced bounce.
Are three referees and a timekeeper really necessary?
Only at an international level – though it is recommended that you play with a minimum of two referees as the game by it’s nature is very fast and will be difficult for one person to referee on there own.
After the first FIFA Futsal World Championships that took place in the Netherlands in the same year, Futsal began to increase in stature as more and more Associations began to adopt the sport, keen to take advantage of it’s benefits in developing players for the bigger game. Individual close ball skills are developed through an increased number of touches during the game, whilst players are nearly always placed in reduced space situations and are constantly forced to make decisions demanding speed of thought and quick reflexes.
Essentially 5-aside but with some twists on how the game is currently played across most of England, 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 in 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.
Futsal is also set to explode onto the football scene in Asia with Iran already boasting a professional league and countries such as Japan, Malaysia, Thailand all keen to follow. Chinese Taipei will also be hosting the fifth FIFA World Championships in December 2004, which will see almost 90 associations take part in the qualifying stages, an increase on the 64 that took part in the qualifying for the 2000 Championships held in Guatemala.
Futsal fever is currently encapsulating most of the globe but it owes a great deal of its success and all of its appeal to the streets and playgrounds of South America were the game was first conceived.
South American Origins…
Futsal has it’s origins in the South American countries of Uruguay and Brazil where, in the 1930’s, two versions of small sided football were being played in the cities of Montevideo and Sao Paulo respectively.
In Montevideo, the Argentinean coach Juan Carlos Ceriani developed an indoor version of the 11 aside game that could be played in youth competitions in the local YMCA’s.
Meanwhile in Brazil, a version began to develop on the streets of Sao Paulo, leading to the publishing of the first rules of the game in 1936 from the country that would soon become the masters of the game.
The sport began to spread from the South American continent and with it’s growing popularity came the need for a governing body and a World Championships. The International Federation for Futebol de Sala, FIFUSA, was officially founded in Brazil in 1971 and the first FIFUSA world championships were held in Sao Paulo with the hosts taking first place ahead of Paraguay and Uruguay. The Brazilians fielded stars from their 11-aside game that had been brought up playing the sport with amongst others Pele, Rivelino, Falcao and Zico demonstrating their skills as Futsal players.
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.
FIFA Takes Control…
It was becoming clear that the sport was beginning to outgrow FIFUSA and in 1989 FIFA took over as the governing body, abbreviating Futebol de Sala to ‘Futsal’ and organising the first FIFA Futsal World Championship held in the Netherlands in the same year.
Under FIFA’s control new rules were introduced aimed at improving the technical and aspects of the game for players and spectators alike. The ball was made slightly larger (increased to a size 4) but still weighted to reduce bounce, the linesmen were replaced with the second referee and unlimited substitutions were introduced.
FIFA’s relationships with its member associations enabled more and more countries to gain access to futsal knowledge and resources. This was no doubt a major factor in the increase in the number of participating nations in the fourth FIFA world championships held in Gautamala City in 2000, in which Spain ended the dominance of Brazil in world Futsal beating them in the final. This was the crowning glory on an excellent performance by all the UEFA Associations taking part.
UEFA Dominance…
The dominance of UEFA associations at the Guatemala finals did not come out of blue and was the result of a development plan that began in 1996 when UEFA, recognising the growth in Futsal across the continent in the early 1990’s, arranged a European tournament for national teams in Cordoba, Spain, which was eventually won by the hosts.
UEFA continued to build on the growing popularity of the game, organising the first European Championships back in Spain but this time in Granada, which the Russians won after a penalty shoot out. The tournament attracted record number of crowds and convinced UEFA to carry on with the development of the game, encouraging even more of it’s member associations to take part in the qualifying rounds of the second UEFA Championships held in Moscow in 2001.
In the same year, encouraged by the growth in stature of the domestic leagues in Europe, UEFA created the official European competition for futsal clubs – the UEFA Futsal Cup, with teams from member associations earning their right to play in the competition by winning the National League or Championship organised by their own association.
The UEFA Futsal Cup continued into it’s third year with the 2003-2004 competition again being dominated by the Spanish clubs. It was however, a landmark season for English Futsal as it was the first year that a team from England participated in the competition, having previously been noticeable by their absence from European Futsal.
Futsal in England…
Not played on any large scale, Futsal is still in the embryonic stages of development in England and, until the introduction of the first official National Championships organised by The FA in July 2003, had been left to individual groups of futsal pioneers to develop the game in their local areas, venturing abroad when they could to play the game at a more advanced level.
Kick-started firstly by the visit of the first international futsal team to English shores, when Tranmere Victoria hosted the Iranian National Futsal Team in October 2002 and then by the interest generated from a pilot futsal tournament hosted by Sheffield Hallamshire FA in the November of the same year, the Football Association began to put in place plans to take the game forward at a grass roots level in 2003 through the establishment of a National Championships and the participation of Tranmere Victoria in the 2003 – 2004 UEFA Futsal cup.
The first National Championships were played in July 2003, drawing teams from regional qualifying competitions in London, Cheltenham, Wirral, Sheffield and Grimsby, with Sheffield Hallam Futsal Club being crowned champions.
Just before the national Championships the first ever England Futsal team gathered, under Head Coach Graeme Dell, to take part in a major International Futsal Tournament taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The KL5’s saw 11 other teams, including Brazil, Argentina and Japan join England to compete for a $100,000 prize.
Since Kuala Lumpur the national futsal team programme has continued to move on, with the England team participating in the preliminary rounds for the 2005 UEFA Futsal Championship in January 2004.
This was a landmark event in the history of English Futsal, being the first time that an England National Team had competed in an official UEFA competition. Again under the guidance of Graeme Dell, and drawn against two other nations relatively new to the sport - Cyprus and Albania - England travelled to Albania keen to build on some encouraging performances in the KL5’s but narrowly lost out in both matches.
2004 promises to be an exciting year for Futsal in England with plans to continue with the development of Futsal at a national team and grass roots level so for more information about the laws of the game and how to get involved please read on.
Getting Involved
Understanding the Laws of the Game
The official rules for Futsal – ‘The FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game’ are published by FIFA and cover all aspects of the rules that the game should be played to and the disciplinary actions that players face when they infringe on those rules. There are 18 laws in all, ranging in focus from the technical requirements of the ball and pitch through to the exact workings of the accumulated foul rule. They are available to download from the FIFA website as a standalone publication - www.fifa.com/en/development/futsal/
As an initial introduction to these laws, the basic principals of the game that make it different from any other versions of 5-aside that you might have played are highlighted below:
- The pitch – Futsal is played on a marked pitch and the ball can go out of play.
- The ball - Is a fundamental factor in making the game and is by virtue of the laws of the game required to be a smaller, heavier, ‘low bounce’ version of 11 a-side ball
- Head height – There are no restrictions (apart form the ceiling of the sports hall!) as to how high the ball can be kicked in Futsal.
- Rotating substitutions – Up to 12 players can be used in one match and there is no limit on how long a player must stay on or off the pitch. Players must enter and leave the field of play via the ‘substitution zone’ that is marked on the pitch in front of the team’s benches.
- Kick-ins – In order to restart the game after a ball has gone out of play the ball is kicked back into play from the touchline and from corners. The ball must be placed stationary on the touchline and the feet of the player taking the kick-in must not cross the line.
- The 4 second rule – For kick-ins, free kicks, goal clearances and corner kicks the player in possession of the ball has 4 seconds to restart play which the referee will count with their fingers in the air. If play isn’t restarted within four seconds an indirect free kick will be awarded to the opposing team. The goalkeeper is not allowed to control the ball for more than 4 seconds in his own half.
- The 5m rule – Players are required to keep 5m from the player in possession of the ball on free kicks, corners, goal clearances, kick-ins and penalties.
- Goalkeepers – Goalkeepers are allowed to come out of and players are allowed to go into the penalty area. A goal clearance must be thrown out and the goalkeeper cannot touch the ball again until it has crossed into the opponents half or a member of the opposition has touched the ball
- Accumulated fouls – Each team will be allowed to give away 5 direct free kicks in each half, then on the sixth foul a direct kick is awarded to the opposing team and the defending team is not allowed to position any players (other than the goal keeper) between the ball and the goal. The kick may be take from the 10m mark or, if the foul was committed closer to the goal than the 10m mark, then the kick may be taken from the position where the foul took place.
- Real time – A Futsal match consists of two twenty minute halfs that are played real-time which means the clock stops whenever the ball goes out of play.
- Time outs – Each team is allowed a one-minute time out in each half lasting 60 seconds.
- Sliding Tackles – Sliding tackles are not allowed in Futsal but players ARE allowed to slide on the pitch, for example to stop the ball from going out of play. For a player sliding to be considered an offence, the tackler’s opponent must have possession of the ball. Referees will not give a foul for a slide if the opponent does not have possession of the ball.
- Red Cards – If a player is sent off then the team to which the player belongs must remain with 4 players until either two minutes have passed, or the opposition have scored a goal.
In an International Futsal match there are three referees and one timekeeper whose responsibilities are outlined below:
First referee – The first referee is responsible for controlling the match and has full authority to enforce the laws of the game. They will keep a record of the match and provide the appropriate authorities with a match report if required and will act as a timekeeper if one isn’t present.
Second referee – The second referee is also permitted to use his whistle to stop the game for any infringement of the laws and will ensure that the substitutions are carried out correctly.
Third referee - The third referee assists the timekeeper and the other referees by recording details of the game on the match report sheet such as times of goals, stoppages and the number of accumulated fouls. The third referee should also try to control the bench area for the two teams, only allowing the coach to stand a give instruction to the players.
Timekeeper – The time keeper is responsible for controlling the duration of the match by starting and stopping the clock when the ball goes in and out of play and the match is stopped by the referees. They also control the one-minute timeout and the two-minute effective time punishment period when a player has been sent off.
Starting to Play
Since the sport is only just beginning to develop in England, initially it may be difficult to find the facilities already established that will allow you to play futsal - but don’t be put off!
If you have found a local leisure centre with a hall or playing area that looks like it may be big enough, ask them if they could mark the pitch out with tape for you – even if it is only temporary at first.
Here are some answers to some commonly asked questions when first starting to play the game:
Can I play on Any Surface?
At an International level Futsal must be played on either a wooden floor or a suitable synthetic floor that is smooth and flat and does not restrict the roll of the ball. However, at any other level Futsal may be played on a variety of surfaces including Astroturf and grass.
Do I need to use a special type of ball?
Yes, Futsal balls are smaller than eleven aside balls and are made with a reduced bounce.
Are three referees and a timekeeper really necessary?
Only at an international level – though it is recommended that you play with a minimum of two referees as the game by it’s nature is very fast and will be difficult for one person to referee on there own.
