The History of Futsal

“Futebol de Salão” started to be practiced in the early 1940’s by young boys that frequented the Association of Christians for youngsters, in São Paulo, Brazil. Due to the difficulties in finding football pitches, they improvised the games on basket ball courts and hockey courts. Initially teams varied from five, six or even 7 players, but day by day the number was limited to five. The balls were made of a plant material and went through many different modifications. The size got smaller and the ball got heavier. This is why Futebol de Salão is also called the sport of the heavy ball, “Bola Pesada”, in Portuguese.

In 1948, a group of Brazilian professors (Asdrubal Monteiro, João Lotufo and Jose Rothier) participated in Uruguay in a course sponsored by the Institute of Coaches of the South American Federation. The Association of Young Christians received copies of the rules of Futebol de Salão.

In 1949 the association of Young Christians in Rio de Janeiro organised the first tournament of Futebol de Salão for young children between 10 – 15 years old.

On July 28th, 1954, the first official organisation in Rio de Janeiro was established, called the Metropolitana Federation of Futebol de Salão, at the American Football club in Rio.

On June 14th, 1955, São Paulo established their Federation of Futebol de Salão.

The first Futebol de Salão championship was inaugurated in Rio with 42 participants in 1956. The first team to win the championships was Imperial.

In 1958 the Brazilian Confederation of Sport decided to make Futebol de Salão an official sport with standardised rules with all Brazilian states affiliated.

In 1959 the first National Brazilian Championship was played.

In 1971 in Rio the International Federation of Futebol de Salão (FIFUSA) was established, with 32 countries officiating. Joãn Havellange, President of FIFUSA served as its first president.

FIFA, the international governing body of soccer adopted this game in 1987.” Since then the game has expanded world wide to an estimated 25 million players.

Case Histories

Two of the greatest names in football talk about Futebol de Salão (Now known as Futsal) in their respective autobiographies.

Ronaldo started his football career playing Futebol de Salão. From his autobiography taken from r9ronaldo.com, he describes how he used to play bare foot after school, dreaming the dream. He wants to be like his idol, Zico. As a junior he then starts playing Futebol de Salão,

“In 1988, Ronaldo joins his first club, Tennis Club Valqueire, where he plays “Futebol de Salão”. Futebol de Salão, or football indoor, is played with a size 2 ball on a pitch the size of a basketball court. The ball has very little bounce which means that the ball is always on the floor. The game is designed to encourage foot control and is credited with being one reason why Brazilian players are so skillful. Ronaldo starts his first game for Tennis Club Valqueire on the bench where they select him as cover for the goalkeeper. Eventually he plays in the forwards, he likes it. He scores. Ronaldo’s moment happens during a tournament for junior players, when he plays like a comic book hero for Valqueire against the rich Vasco de Gama team. While Ronaldo steers his team to victory, he is seen by a member of Social Ramos, who succeeds in moving the young boy to his own team also if Sonia, his mother, try to resist because the bus trip from Bento Ribeiro to Social Ramos takes two hours each way.

It’s still “Futebol de Salão” though, and Ronaldo, now 11 years old, feels ready for proper soccer. Problems arise when he tries to get into the Flamengo team; but they don’t want him. On the return journey home, a gang of people threaten him on the bus. They steal the watch he had bought with money he had saved from his first few jobs. A day that Ronaldo regrets. As for Flamengo, a chance they will never forget!

Ronaldo perseveres. At 13, he plays “Futebol de Salão” with Social Ramos and soccer with Sao Cristovao. He becomes best scorer in both tournaments and has to choose which path to follow. He decides to focus on Sao Cristovao only. He’s good and he’s getting noticed. His mother would like him to study, but he prefers playing soccer. Finally he gets his big break when he signs professionally for a fee of $7,500 dollars and is soon drafted into the Brazilian under 17 team. Ronaldo asks for the Nike shoes he’s always dreamt of, and becomes a leading player in the South American junior tournament in Colombia that year. Following that success, Ronaldo gained a better deal, this time, $50,000 dollars and a move to Cruzeiro di Belo Horizonte, a reasonably big club in Minas Gerais, in central Brazil.
Far from the beaches in Rio, Ronaldo is growing into the role of being a professional footballer. He’s happy and gets along with the rest of the team. Naturally, he gets homesick and his parents, now separated, come and visit him. They follow his exceptional performances. The pace of progress for Ronaldo accelerates. The local press describe him as incredibly talented. In December 1993, just 17 years old, Ronaldo’s big dream becomes true: he’s asked to join the national team, the green and gold Selecao. He uses part of his first pay cheque to buy a Volkswagen Golf (even though he’s not old enough for a driving licence yet) and help his mum to move out of Bento Ribeiro.” The rest is just history as they say. It certainly was however Futebol de Salão that got Ronaldo started. He attributes his great skills from playing the game.

Pele the greatest player of all time also developed lightening quick reflexes and incredible skills playing Futebol de Salão. In his autobiography, “My Life the Beautiful Game,” Pele describes how as a small boy in the poverty stricken streets of Baru, unable to afford a football they used to make their own ball. “We couldn’t afford a ball so we did what most other kids did for a ball: We would stuff the largest man’s socks we could find with rags or crumpled up newspaper, roll it into as close a ball shape as we could manage, and tie it round with string. As we became more proficient in the game, and as we grew bigger, we would use more and more stuffing, making a bigger and a heavier ball. Some of the socks we used for our balls or for their stuffing were taken from clotheslines before the owner were aware that they had contributed, but we felt our greater need justified the borrowing. A man could always walk around without socks – we did – but a kid needed something to kick. Our field was the street where I lived, Rua Rubens Arruda, and our goals where the two ends of the street. Our sidelines were where the curb might have been had the street been paved. As it wasn’t it took a bit of skill just to be able to keep one’s balance on the surface. It also took skill to kick our ball, since in varied in weight depending on how lately it had been stuffed, and also on whether is ran through many mud puddles as we kicked it.”

While Pele was playing Juvenile soccer, Futebol de Salão, made its appearance in Pele’s home town sponsored by the Radio Club. Pele writes in his autobiography, “Futebol de Salão- indoor football, really actually started outdoors, being played on small courts with reduced teams. The first games where actually played on basketball courts, outdoors, and because of the small size of the field, make for a very fast game.”

“The Radio Club called its team Radium and I was asked to play for them. I was the only non professional on the team and was fourteen years old at the time. I played centre-forward, my usual position, and in that season led league in scoring forty goals.”

It was while Pele was playing Futebol de Salão as an amateur youth in an adult professional team when he was discovered and was asked to join the great team Santos to start his illustrious career. As with many Brazilian players, Futebol de Salão helped him develop his quick reflexes and sublime soccer skills. Today the game is called Futsal and as with Ronaldo young Brazilians are dreaming of becoming their idol by playing Futsal.