Growing momentum: Futsal's 30-year rise

UEFA Futsal EURO 2026, a 16-team tournament across three nations, kicks off almost exactly 30 years since UEFA’s very first national-team competition, an experimental six-nation week-long event in Córdoba, Spain.

Only 17 associations entered teams into that four-day, three-venue qualifying competition which decided the five nations joining Spain, both in the European tournament and also in the third FIFA Futsal World Cup in Barcelona later in 1996.

For Futsal EURO 2026, there were 48 entries and qualifying alone consisted of 146 matches played over the course of a year and a half across Europe, with more than 160,000 fans attending in total, and plenty more enjoying the spectacular action on TV and internet.

The sport has also spread beyond traditional heartlands – Armenia, Latvia and Lithuania take the number of different nations to qualify for a Futsal EURO to 26, a number that stood at 17 prior to the 2016 edition a decade ago. France’s rise in that time from perennial qualifying also-rans to FIFA Futsal World Cup semi-finalists shows the expansion of the European sport.

The origins and evolution of futsal

Although what became futsal emerged in the 1930s in South America, it was not until 1989 that the first official ‘FIFA World Championship for Five-A-Side Football’ was organised (the ‘futsal’ title was introduced for that third edition in 1996). Sixteen nations were invited, fielding a mixture of specialist indoor players and well-known outdoor footballers (Denmark’s squad included the likes of Brian Laudrup and Lars Olsen). The Netherlands hosted and reached the final, losing to Brazil – both teams fielding futsal specialists.

Brazil dominated the early World Cups, with their main challenge emerging from Spain, runners-up in 1996, then dethroning Brazil in a thrilling 2000 final, keeping hold of the trophy in 2004 before losing to their South American rivals in the 2008 and 2012 deciders. In fact, the only Futsal World Cup final between 1996 and 2012 that was not between Brazil and Spain was in 2004, when the European side instead beat their familiar opponents in the semis on penalties.

Children play futsal at the Cafu Foundation in Sao Paulo, BrazilAFP via Getty Images

In that period the sport’s first stars began to emerge, like Brazil’s Falcão and Manoel Tobias, and Spain’s Javier Lorente and Javi Rodríguez. Their spectacular skillset, as well as winning mentalities, played a crucial role in promoting the format as a fast-paced and spectacular sport, familiar to football fans but with an exciting twist. The likes of Ricardinho and Zicky have followed in their footsteps.

The growth of the game in Europe

Spain, meanwhile, were dominating Futsal EURO, winning seven of the first ten editions between 1996 and 2016. However, the Brazilian-Spanish duopoly has been broken in the last decade, with Portugal winning the last two EUROs as well as the 2021 World Cup, beating reigning champions Argentina in the second straight final to feature neither of the dominant former champions.

Since 2010, fast-emerging Azerbaijan, Czechia, Kazakhstan and Serbia have all reached EURO semi-finals, and France making the last four of the 2024 World Cup further confirmed the emergence of a new force. It is perhaps no coincidence that 2010 was when the final tournament was expanded from eight to 12 teams, opening up more opportunities for teams to qualify and become used to playing the biggest nations on that highest stage. And in 2022, when the Futsal EURO finals moved to a 16-team format, four nations made debuts and three of them got past the group stage – Finland, Georgia and Slovakia.

The fact that two of those, as well as the other beaten quarter-finalists Kazakhstan, were not even able to qualify this time shows just how deep the pool of competitive teams now goes. In all, only eight of the 16 sides in Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia were also at Netherlands 2022.

Serbia’s 2016 run was perhaps no coincidence as they were also hosts – and sold out the 11,000+ capacity Belgrade Arena for all their games, creating a mighty atmosphere under the roof. The aggregate attendance for the tournament was 100,000+, matched by Ljubljana 2018, while there have been similarly huge crowds in the UEFA Futsal Champions League in venues like Lisbon, Almaty and Gliwice.

The club competition drives futsal forward

Certainly, futsal’s European expansion has also been reflected in the club game. When the first official continental club competition, the UEFA Futsal Cup, was introduced in 2001/02, there were 27 entrants (which was still twice as many as there would have been less than a decade earlier, when only 13 UEFA associations organised leagues). By the time the competition became the UEFA Futsal Champions League in 2018/19, 53 of the 55 UEFA member associations were represented – meaning that the chance to play for a national futsal title is pretty much universal throughout Europe, with pyramids to match.

While Spanish and Portuguese clubs have been just as dominant in UEFA club competition as the EURO, the UEFA Futsal Cup/Champions League has often pointed to the growth of the sport even ahead of the national teams. Notably, Kairat Almaty rose as a force and even won two UEFA titles before Kazakhstan qualified for their first major tournament, and clubs from the likes of Latvia, Kosovo and Malta have been significant forces in the competition.

The rise of the women’s game

Men’s futsal has been establishing itself for a long time, and now the women’s game is also starting to capture attention. In 2017, only seven European associations fielded women’s national teams, and the majority of UEFA’s 55 members had no registered female futsal players at all. But that year, the UEFA Women’s Futsal EURO was announced, and the first edition with qualifying in 2018 and a four-team final tournament in early 2019 had 23 entrants, the competition being a spur to set up squads and give female futsallers the chance to shine.

The Brazil team pose with the trophy after winning the 2025 FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup FIFA via Getty Images

The first FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup then followed with European qualifying starting in October 2024 and England, France and Norway all entering newly-formed squads. Italy and Poland both qualified despite having never reached a EURO, while Portugal finished second and three-time European champions Spain third behind winners Brazil (pictured bottom left) in the Philippines in December.

In recognition of the expansion of interest, and to make room for World Cup qualifying, Women’s Futsal EURO has now changed from a biennial four-team event to an eight-sided final tournament every four years, with Croatia to stage the first event in 2027.

Beyond elite competition

Futsal is, of course, more than the elite UEFA or FIFA competitions, whether for men or women, club or national teams – including the U19 Futsal EURO that began in 2019 and the U18 events for boys and girls now part of the Youth Olympic Games. A sport that can be played in a small space, whether indoors in a hard winter, or in outdoor courts has become hugely attractive, not least with its familiar closeness to football.

FIFA estimates there are more than 30 million global players, not counting the countless more taking part in casual games. A total of around 20 million viewers watched Futsal EURO 2022 matches on TV or streaming, and the most spectacular moments – like Ricardinho’s famous 2016 goal for Portugal against Serbia – have been going viral for a decade or more.

Ricardinho himself, his stellar 20-plus year career only just ended, epitomised the calibre of player who not only possessed the skills to do the spectacular, but the will to promote the sport and engage with fans to ensure that futsal’s exciting potential can only still be guessed at.