History
Futsal is an indoor version of soccer, with five players to a side and no sideboards. That, of course, distinguishes it from the type of indoor soccer best known in the United States, which has six players per side and uses sideboards to keep the ball from going out of bounds.
It was created in Montevideo, Uruguay, by Juan Carlos Ceriani in 1930. A youth soccer coach, Ceriani got tired of having practices and games rained out. He devised a soccer game for a YMCA basketball court to allow his young players to get the practice they needed.
The game proved to be so much fun for players and spectators alike that it spread quickly to other South American countries. It became especially popular in Brazil, where a similar form of street soccer had already caught on. Rules for the new sport were first published in Brazil in 1936.
Uruguay won the first major international competition, the South American Cup, in 1965. However, Brazil won the next six South American Cup championships and followed that string with victories in the first two Pan American Cup tournaments, in 1980 and 1984.
A world governing body, the International Federation for Futebol de Sala (FIFUSA) was founded in 1971. Futebol de sala is Spanish for indoor football. That was officially abridged to futsal in 1989, when the FIFUSA was absorbed by soccer's international governing body, the Federation Internationale Football Association (FIFA).
Symbolic of the sport's growth, the first FIFA futsal world cup tournament was held in the Netherlands that year. Brazil won, but the host country finished second and the United States was third. For the 2004 world cup, 90 countries took part in the qualifying rounds, up from 64 in 2000.
Fusbal evidently came from Mexico to the United States, where it was at first called minisoccer. The U. S. Minisoccer Federation was founded to govern the sport in 1981. It was renamed the U. S. Futsal Federation (USFF) in 1989, when it became affiliated with the U. S. Soccer Federation (USSF).
There's been an annual U. S. national championship since 1985. The USFF has been actively promoting futsal for youngsters in recent years, working with the American Youth Soccer Organization and the U. S. Youth Soccer Association. Futsal is also played by more than 1,000 Boys and Girls Clubs of America.