Futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

is governed by the Brazilian Futsal Confederation. Although it is not the most popular spectator sport in the country, it is the most practiced.

History

Futsal was developed in Brazil and

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

around the same time, in 1934 in Uruguay and in the 1940s in Brazil. In Brazil the sport was developed by

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

due to the lack of available football fields.

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

courts and

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

posts were used to practice the sport. In the 1950s, the first state futsal federations were founded, starting with the Federação Metropolitana de Futebol de Salão (''Metropolitan Futsal Federation''), of

Rio de Janeiro state Rio de Janeiro () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil. It has the second largest economy of Brazil, with the largest being that of the state of São Paulo. The state, which has 8.2% of the Brazilian population, is responsible for 9.2% of ...

, founded on July 28, 1954, and currently known as Federação de Futebol de Salão do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (''Rio de Janeiro State Futsal Federation''), followed by the state federations of

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

, also founded in 1954,

, in 1955, Ceará, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest b ...

in 1956, and several others in the subsequent years. On June 15, 1979, the Brazilian Futsal Confederation was founded, in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

, after the Brazilian Sports Confederation (CBD), which was the responsible for the administration of several sports, folded. The founding states were Acre,

Alagoas Alagoas (, ) is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco (N and NW); Sergipe (S); Bahia (SW); and the Atlantic Ocean (E). Its capital is the city of Maceió. ...

, Amapá, Amazonas,

, Ceará,

Distrito Federal A federal district is a type of administrative division of a federation, usually under the direct control of a federal government and organized sometimes with a single municipal body. Federal districts often include capital districts, and they ...

Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (, , ; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attra ...

Goiás Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goi ...

, Paraíba, Paraná,

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it List of Brazilian states by population, sev ...

Maranhão Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of . Clockwise from north, it borders on the Atlantic Ocean for 2,243 km and the states of Piauí, Tocantins and ...

, Mato Grosso,

Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Norte (, , ) is one of the states of Brazil. It is located in the northeastern region of the country, forming the northeasternmost tip of the South American continent. The name literally translates as "Great Northern River", re ...

, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina,

, and

Sergipe Sergipe (), officially State of Sergipe, is a state of Brazil. Located in the Northeast Region along the Atlantic coast of the country, Sergipe is the smallest state in Brazil by geographical area at , larger only than the Federal District. Serg ...

. On August 27 of that year, Aécio de Borba Vasconcelos was elected as the organization's first president, and Fortaleza was chosen as its headquarters. Futsal is played by most children in Brazil at some point. It combines the fast play and individual talent that is typical of Brazilian football. Many professional football players from Brazil started playing futsal. Perhaps the most notable of these were Falcão and

Ronaldinho Ronaldo de Assis Moreira (born 21 March 1980), commonly known as Ronaldinho Gaúcho () or simply Ronaldinho, is a Brazilian retired professional association football, footballer who played mostly as an attacking midfielder, but was also deplo ...

National team

The Brazilian national team is very successful, winning several titles, such as the

FIFA Futsal World Cup The FIFA Futsal World Cup is an international futsal competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport's global governing body. Since the first edition that took place in 1989 in the Netherland ...

, the

South American Futsal Championship South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

, the

Grand Prix de Futsal The Grand Prix de Futsal is an international futsal competition of the same kind of the FIFA Futsal World Cup but with invited nations and held annually in Brazil. It was first held in 2005. History In 2007, the sixteen participating nations are ...

, and the Futsal Mundialito. Brazil also won the first edition of the sport at the Pan American Games, in 2007. The team was on a 167-game winning streak and was recently ended by

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

at the Grand Prix.

Domestic competitions

There are two national competitions, which are the Liga Futsal, and the

Taça Brasil de Futsal The Taça Brasil de Futsal (Portuguese for ''Brazil Futsal Trophy'') is a Brazilian futsal championship. It was the only futsal competition in Brazil until 1996, when the Liga Futsal started. The Taça Brasil is one of the most traditional Brazi ...

. Liga Futsal started in 1996, while Taça Brasil de Futsal is the oldest national futsal competition in Brazil, and started in 1968. Also, each state federation organizes its own state championship.

References

External links

Confederação Brasileira de Futebol de Salão
{{Use mdy dates, date=September 2012

History

National team

Domestic competitions

See also

References

External links