The beautiful indoor game: Why futsal is such a unique attraction

"When I saw the intensity of a futsal game, having contact with the ball almost all the time, being able to dribble every five, ten seconds, being able to score a goal in a second, this made me fall in love with the sport."

Those are the words of Ricardinho, a Futsal EURO and FIFA Futsal World Cup winner with Portugal and widely regarded as perhaps at least Europe’s finest-ever player. Even apart from his many victories on the pitch for club and country, 'O Mágico' helped the sport catch wide attention with his many spectacular goals and actions – but as he points out himself, there is more to futsal than incredible skills with the potential to go viral.

The inevitable association

When discussing the merits of futsal – the name a portmanteau of 'indoor football' in Portuguese – inevitably the sport’s outdoor counterpart hones into view. There are many codes of 'football' but futsal is the one that most closely resembles soccer in terms of game play and scoring, and is administered by the same confederations and national associations.

Association football is clearly the world’s most popular sport and many come to futsal through its association with the 11-a-side game. So when saying what is special about futsal, it is hard to avoid pointing out qualities that differentiate it from football, or indeed its use in developing players for the outdoor game.

Futsal matches are often more high-scoring than the 11-a-side gameGetty Images for DFB

And the association with football – whether through the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Neymar extolling the virtues of futsal, or soccer’s most famous clubs also finding success in the smaller-sided discipline (Barcelona, Benfica and Sporting CP all have UEFA futsal titles) – does give a unique spotlight other younger sports would pray to share.

A marriage of different games

Futsal is much more than football’s younger brother. Much of its appeal comes from its marriage of the qualities of many different games.

Clearly, if you understand football, you can follow futsal. They are not identical, but similar enough to follow what you are watching. And also to appreciate where futsal strikes out on its own – not least in the scoring, which is high enough to produce thrillers with several twists on a frequency football can only envy, but where like in the outdoor game, goals are rare enough that each one is a special, thrilling moment compared to sports where points are regularly ranked up every few minutes or even seconds.

Futsal indeed has played a role in developing football players. Andrés Iniesta speaks for many when he says "Futsal teaches you to think quickly, move in small spaces and be creative. Those are things that stay with you throughout your career." To stress, though, that is not just for future footballers – look at the incredible individuals in the squads for Futsal EURO.

Fans of the likes of basketball or handball, played on similarly-sized indoor courts, will certainly find something familiar to enjoy about futsal. The tight pitch makes for an intense spectacle, and even if futsal is full of memorable individual tricks and magical player combinations, they have to be produced at high speed with opponents tight on you and little room on the court.

Futsal players must be able to operate in tight spacesSPORTSFILE

And it also means that any team, even if on top, are potentially a few seconds from conceding on the counter, while a flurry of chances or corners can go by at a pulsating pace, good news for fans and viewers, though maybe not so much (if exhilarating) for those whose job is to write about phases of action that are over before you have had time to type out the words describing the previous one.

Intensity and atmosphere

The rolling substitutes in futsal, as in similar indoor sports, also ensure the game continues at a constant intensity with most players on the pitch in short bursts punctuated by recharging rests. Falcão, perhaps the sport’s greatest-ever player, once said: "The formation of futsal is that the players touch the ball very often and by default, that helps in the development of the technical qualities of the player while it is a big incentive for every individual to stick to futsal."

And the stopping clock can also make a tight last minute as epic as those seen in the NFL, and also allows for swift turnarounds such as in the 2021 Futsal Champions League final, when Sporting CP went from 2-0 down to 3-2 up in the space of less than five second-half playing minutes.

The indoor setting of futsal produces an intense atmosphere UEFA via Getty Images

The indoor setting also produces an atmosphere and sheer noise equal to that of a football crowd several times the size thanks to the roof and the fans being right on top of the pitch. Anyone who saw Croatia’s Futsal EURO 2012 semi-final run in Split and Zagreb, or Serbia’s similar success at Futsal EURO 2016 in Belgrade, or more at club level Palma’s debut UEFA Futsal Champions League triumph on home soil in 2023 fan attest to that.

Naturally, futsal has a unique quality of its own in addition to combining the best of longer-established indoor or outdoor sports. Especially aesthetically – the reason the sport is so associated with the incredible goals and logic-defying skills of the likes of Ricardinho is because you do see them at a frequency rare in other disciplines. Futsal EURO 2026 will be full of them – along with the pulsating intensity and sudden drama that makes the sport so special.