The History Of Futsal

The first record of an organised five-a-side brand of football dates back to 1930 in Montevideo, Uruguay. The same year the pioneering football nation hosted the first FIFA World Cup™ at its brand-new Estadio Centenario, an Argentine-born coach by the name of Juan Carlos Ceriani, so tired of rain-soaked pitches and cancelled training sessions, brought the game indoors for the first time.

With an eye to making his new indoor game more accessible, but also more organised, he put together a set of rules strikingly similar to those that govern futsal today. The children of Montevideo took to the small-sided game with aplomb, and it was played in YMCA houses throughout the capital. The hybrid version was perfectly suited to either outdoor or indoor venues, as all that was needed was a small, basketball-size court.

Hazy origins
While Ceriani was fostering the game Uruguay, a similar small-sided game was being played on the streets of Sao Paolo, Brazil.

The game quickly spread throughout South America as 'futbol sala' (room football, or indoor football) or 'futebol de salao' in Brazil - where the first local leagues sprang up like weeds.

Going global
It didn't take long for the game to spread to every corner of Latin America, and the first international futsal competition kicked off in 1965. And in a bit of a shock it was Paraguay that got off the blocks best, taking home the first South American honours. Brazil won the next six Championships between 1965 and 1979. The yellow-clad pioneers of the five-a-side art then went on to extend their dominance with victories in the 1980 and 1984 Pan American games.

With a lesser number of players, a smaller field and a weighted ball, futsal demanded the emergence of new strategies. Quick feet and a quick mind were imperative, as was the use of the toes and the bottom of the foot.

The International Federation for Futebol de Sala (FIFUSA) was officially founded in Brazil in 1971. And the first Futsal World Championship (though not yet affiliated to FIFA) took place in 1982 in the five-a-side hotbed of Sao Paolo. Continuing their stranglehold on the game, Brazil again took the honours with a team studded with stars from the outdoor game. They then went on to repeat their winning ways in Spain three years later in 1985, before losing their crown in Australia to rivals Paraguay.