Futsal is an Association football-based sport played on a hardcourt like a basketball court, smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors.

Unlike some other forms of indoor football, it is played on a hard court surface marked by lines; walls or boards are not used.

[citation needed] Futsal started in 1930 when Juan Carlos Ceriani Gravier, a teacher in Montevideo, Uruguay, created a version of indoor football for YMCAs.

Association football was already highly popular in the country, and after Uruguay won the 1930 World Cup and gold medals in the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics, it attracted even more practitioners.

Ceriani's goal was to create a team game similar to football that could be played indoors or outdoors.

It was easily played by everyone, everywhere, and in any weather condition, helping players of other sports stay in shape all year round.

These reasons convinced João Lotufo, a Brazilian, to bring the game to his country and adapt it to the needs of physical education.

In 1956, the rules were modified by Habib Maphuz and Luiz Gonzaga de Oliveira Fernandes within the YMCA of São Paulo, Brazil, to allow seniors to compete.

Luiz de Oliveira wrote the Book of Rules of Futsal in 1956, then adopted also at the international level.

It attracted some interest in South American media, which regularly began to follow futsal.

In particular, it was the Brazilian journalist José Antônio Inglêz who passionately contributed to the rapid spread of the game, as well as being credited as the man who coined the name "futsal".

[9] Today, futsal is a very popular global sport, with one source estimating 12 million players across the world.

[10] Due to its easy setup, enhanced accessibility, and lower physical requirements, futsal has become an essential resource for coaches aiming to develop players.

Its membership spans countries from North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

FIFA publishes its futsal rules as the 'Laws of the Game', in which each of the 17 'laws' is a thematically related collection of individual regulations.

The laws define all aspects of the game, including which may be changed to suit local competitions and leagues.

The goalkeeper is allowed to wear long trousers and a different coloured kit to distinguish themself from the other players on the team and the referee.

This area is created by drawing quarter-circles with a 6 m (20 ft) radius from the goal line, centered on the goalposts.

The second penalty mark is 10 metres (33 ft) from the goal line when it reaches the middle of the goalposts.

In some competitions, the game cannot end in a draw, so away goals, extra time and kicks from the penalty mark are the three methods for determining the winner after a match has been drawn.

An indirect free kick is also awarded to the opposing team if a player plays in a dangerous manner, deliberately obstructs an opponent, prevents the goalkeeper from throwing the ball with hands or anything else for which play is stopped to caution or dismiss a player.

A yellow card is shown if a player shows unsporting behavior, dissent, persistent infringement of the Laws of the Game, delaying the restart of play, failing to respect the distance of the player from the ball when play is being restarted, infringement of substitution procedure or entering, re-entering and leaving the field without the referee's permission.

A player is shown the red card and sent off if they engage in serious foul play, violent conduct, spitting at another person, or denying the opposing team a goal by handling the ball (except the goalkeeper inside their penalty area).

Also punishable with a red card is denying an opponent moving towards the player's goal a goal scoring opportunity by committing an offense punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick and using offensive, insulting or abusive language or gestures.

[17][18] The new ranking will serve to seed for all upcoming editions of the FIFA Futsal World Cup.