HISTORY OF FUTSAL: ORIGIN, EXPANSION AND COMPETITIONS - ARTE - 2025

The history of futsal or micro- soccer - as it is known in Colombia - begins with Juan Carlos Ceriani in Montevideo, Uruguay. Although he is the youngest son of football, futsal has millions of followers around the world, and is also highly recommended by trainers for all those young people who want to start in the 'beautiful game'.

Indoor soccer (also called indoor soccer, futsal and futsala) is a team sport that is practiced with rules similar to those of field soccer, although with some notable differences in terms of size and number of players.

In this sense, futsal takes place on a small pitch (38-42 x 20-25 meters for international matches) and the team is made up of five people.

In addition, futsal differs from field soccer in its origins and in its sports tradition, since it is not of Anglo-Saxon origin but of the Spanish-speaking world.

Origin of futsal or micro football

Latin America is, in this way, the epicenter of a new discipline that soon became popular, thanks to the impulse of certain factors within field football itself that made its advancement possible in the public. Also, the prestige of the first international tournaments made it gain more prestige.

Uruguay was the country where futsal began from personal initiatives that sought to innovate in a sport that was already rooted in Latin America and that was widely accepted in both Europe and North America.

However, its parameters did not start from scratch, but were based on and inspired by the rules of field football, only this time they wanted to do a more appropriate discipline for closed and smaller spaces.

Infrastructure was one of the engines of futsal. Being in places such as indoor gyms, this sport has plenty of versatility, since it can be played anywhere on the globe regardless of the weather conditions.

It is not surprising that futsal has crossed borders; not in vain did the Brazilians adopt the Uruguayan invention and make sure that the supremacy of the 'canarinha' team was maintained beyond field football.

And time took care of proving them right. It has been decades since futsal first came out into the public sphere and, since then, there have been matches in which an excited crowd supports their team to see them score a goal.

Various governing bodies, such as FIFA and the AMF, have for years been in charge of ensuring that these clashes of sports titans are carried out in a fair manner and according to fair play schemes.

Finished

As said in previous paragraphs, futsal is Latin American of origin. This means that the terminological coinage of this sport does not have English or German roots - futsal is not at all a word typical of the Germanic languages ​​- but of another language: Spanish.

However, the Portuguese also had its contribution, since as will be seen in the following sections, Brazil was the second land where this discipline took root.

Futsal court

The use of the term futsal did not begin its massive diffusion until 1985, in Spain. From here it was used in conjunction with other equivalent words, such as futsal, much simpler and more pronounced for non-Spanish-speaking countries.

A dispute at the institutional level of the governing bodies of this sport was all that was necessary to end up registering futsal in official uses, which was well above futsal in the Portuguese-speaking countries.

English-speaking countries, therefore, have opted to talk about futsal, not indoor football or hall / lounge football, since they are too forced and literal translations.

In Italy, on the other hand, they say either calcium a cinque or football sala, while in France they say football de salle.

As you can see, futsal is an idiomatic creation that has had a transcendental impact on both the Germanic and other Romance languages.

The Uruguayan initiative

Juan Carlos Ceriani (1907-1996) was a physical education teacher associated with the YMCA who lived in Uruguay in 1930. In that year, the country was crowned world champion in soccer, which is why this sport was a sensation everywhere.

However, this discipline was still played on the field, so there was no indoor variant. There were, yes, children who wanted to kick balls, not bounce them with their hands, as is done with basketball.

Ceriani noticed this trend and soon understood that a new sport could be invented taking other disciplines as a reference point.

This was due to the fact that Ceriani observed how the children went to the basketball courts to play solely and exclusively soccer, given that the existing fields were already occupied and therefore were not free for their use.

But reinventing football was taking on a challenge that he should take on with courage, since he had to make new rules.

The futsal rules were composed in a coherent way that reconciled aspects of basketball, handball, water polo, roller hockey and, of course, field football.

In this way, Ceriani came up with the idea of ​​creating futsal following these basic but at the same time brilliant guidelines:

• The five players, their strategic position, the length of the game and the defensive blocking technique, which come from basketball.
• The goals (which could be improvised or painted on the walls), the prohibition to kick the ball into the goal from any angle and the measurements of the court, which come from handball.
• The technique of rotations, which owes a lot to hockey.
• The purpose of the game and the ball, which are typical in field football.

In the latter, Ceriani made sure that the ball did not bounce as it does in field football (for this reason, futsal is very suitable for trailing passes).

This is how he, with the special assistance of whoever was the father of Professor José Esperón, invented a new form of football with its corresponding playing instrument, that is, the ball.

This contribution meant for Ceriani the fame and the tribute that is paid to him on March 9, the day of his birth.

It is also unquestionable that Ceriani was the pioneer of futsal. Contrary to what is suggested by some historians, futsal was not born in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo by the ACM, but in Uruguay.

The primary documentary sources show without any doubt that Ceriani was the first to make his invention known to the United States in 1930, and that Montevideo was the first city where this sport was played.

Futsal spreads around the world

Ceriani's creativity caused futsal to go global very quickly. The Americans, to whom the Uruguayan educator wrote, were quick to show their interest.

The YMCA for which he worked was no stranger to this sporting proposal, which was accepted with open arms and which resulted in the export of this discipline to the rest of Latin America. Although the issue of standards was yet to be seen.

In this order of ideas, the rules proposed by Ceriani were not final because others were writing theirs. Thus, in 1956 some adjustments were made in Sao Paulo to allow futsal to be played by adults and not exclusively for minors.

It was thought that a sport of this nature should have an international scope and not only the school, which was limited to the curricular requirements of the educational system.

Of course, this explains why the rules change. It was not enough that futsal was a means of teaching physical education classes; sport had to be made competitive, played by genuine professionals, formed associations, and caught the attention of the press.

It should, therefore, arouse the fury of the fans. And nothing better than organizing a tournament to achieve all these purposes.

The 60s

In the 60s it was when there was a futsal championship between the teams of Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Argentina and Brazil. While the event was modest compared to world tournaments back then, it did not go unnoticed.

The South American media did not take long to follow this sport closely, which was reviewed as futsal on the radio, in the newspapers and on television. Later countries joined the wave of futsal, such as Bolivia and Portugal.

The 80's

In the 80s, world championships were played in which Brazil proved to be as fearsome a team as it had been in field football, when the 'canarinha' became famous with stars like Pelé.

By 1985, Spanish television was even recording the matches, which made this sport devised by Ceriani seen by millions of viewers.

The success of futsal was thus enshrined, but it was not exempt from lawsuits. The sole name of football was the bone of contention between FIFUSA and FIFA, organizations that disputed the official use of the word.

However, FIFA had everything to win and FIFUSA had no choice but to accept its defeat, which is why futsal predominated in its sporting terminology. However, the rough edges between these institutions were not ironed out until 2002.

After the era of schisms, came a more stable era of integration. Nations such as Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Canada unite as teams that want to appear in championships of international stature.

The 90's

In the 90s, the number of countries in futsal increased and this is clearly seen in the number of participants who duel every four years, from the preliminary rounds to the grand final.

In this regard, Brazil has appeared as the favorite team. One of the reasons for the rapid rise of this team lies in the fact that it is preceded by the field soccer team, which has contributed to building its reputation.

In short, this country has a longstanding soccer tradition, which is part of its cultural identity. Brazilians in futsal have won five FIFA world championships, followed by Spaniards, who have two.

Futsal has not had many changes in its regulations, except for one made by FIFA in 2012 regarding the number of substitutes per team.

However, a revolutionary detail in the evolution of this sport lies in the gender, as it was shown that kicking a ball is also a women's thing. In this way, women's teams appeared that have also reaped their triumphs.

Proof of this is in the women's world competitions. Although these are less widely known in the media and there is a smaller fan base, women have not been ignored in sport.

For example, in the five futsal tournaments played between 2010 and 2015, the Brazilians won them all; therefore, they have hardly been seconded in prizes by the women of Portugal, Spain and Russia.

The conformation of the governing bodies

In futsal, the creation of relevant governing bodies was not recorded until 1965, when the South American Confederation of Indoor Soccer was formed, which was made up of Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Then, in 1971, the FIFUSA (International Federation of Indoor Soccer) appeared, initially made up of seven countries. Between the 70s and 80s, FIFUSA had the aforementioned disputes with FIFA due to the exclusivity in the use of the term soccer.

By 1990, Brazil separated from FIFUSA. After creating the Pan American Indoor Soccer Confederation (PANAFUTSAL), which, comprised of fourteen countries, resolved its differences with FIFA at the beginning of the year 2000.

Then, in 2002, the members of PANAFUTSAL created the World Futsal Association (AMF) from this body. To date, the AMF and FIFA preside over the affairs of the sport, although both bodies organize their tournaments separately.

In relation to women's futsal, FIFA has not organized or sponsored world championships that have been held since 2010, although it has had its institutional approval.

Additionally, no futsal associations that are made up entirely of women have been formed so far.

Summary of world competitions (1989 - present)

Male (FIFA)

country	Year	Champion	Runner-up	3rd place
Holland	1989	Brazil	Holland	U.S
Hong Kong	1992	Brazil	U.S	Spain
Spain	nineteen ninety six	Brazil	Spain	Russia
Guatemala	2000	Spain	Brazil	Portugal
Chinese Taipei	2004	Spain	Italy	Brazil
Brazil	2008	Brazil	Spain	Italy
Thailand	2012	Brazil	Spain	Italy
Colombia	2016	Argentina	Russia	Iran

Female

country	Year	Champion	Runner-up	3rd place
Spain	2010	Brazil	Portugal	Russia and Spain
Brazil	2011	Brazil	Spain	Russia
Portugal	2012	Brazil	Portugal	Russia
Spain	2013	Brazil	Spain	Portugal
Costa Rica	2014	Brazil	Portugal	Costa Rica
Guatemala	2015	Brazil	Russia	Portugal

References

1. Ceriani, Juan Carlos (1933). How the Indoor-Foot-Ball came about. Montevideo, Uruguay. Original document typed and digitized in PDF, belonging to the archives of the Uruguayan Federation of Indoor Soccer.
2. (1986). Origin and dissemination of indoor soccer. Montevideo, Uruguay. Original document typed and digitized in PDF, belonging to the archives of the Uruguayan Federation of Indoor Soccer.
3. Delmonte Boeri, Gabriel (2007a). Indoor Soccer. Historical review. Montevideo, Uruguay. Uruguayan Federation of Indoor Soccer. Accessed January 16, 2017.
4. (2007b). Juan C. Ceriani. Montevideo, Uruguay. Uruguayan Federation of Indoor Soccer. Accessed January 16, 2017.
5. For a rainy day: A brief history of futsal (2004, September 27). FIFA. Accessed January 16, 2017.
6. Futsal History (No date). North American Futsal Federation, Major League Futsal. Accessed January 16, 2017.
7. History of futsal (No year). European Futsal Association. Accessed January 16, 2017.
8. Naurigh, John and Parrish, Charles (editors, 2012). Sports around the World: History, Culture, and Practice (4 vols.). California, United States. ABC-CLIO.
9. Souza Santos, Jeddah (1982, April 16). Na ACM, the history of Futebol de Salão. Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Hemerographic article of the Diário Popular digitized in PDF, belonging to the archives of the Uruguayan Federation of Indoor Soccer.
10. FIFA Futsal World Cup Final. All editions. FIFA. Accessed January 16, 2017.
11. Martic, Mico (2013, December 10). 4th Women Futsal World Tournament. Accessed January 16, 2017
12. World Tournament. Accessed January 16, 2017.
13. Ranocchiari, Luca (2010, December 3). 1st Women Futsal World Tournament. Accessed January 16, 2017.
14. (2011, December 2). 2nd Women Futsal World Tournament. Accessed January 16, 2017.
15. (2012, November 19). 3rd Women Futsal World Tournament. Accessed January 16, 2017.
16. (2015, November 24). 6th Women Futsal World Tournament. Accessed January 16, 2017.