# The Shape of a Match · Futsal Level 1: Beginner

Futsal · Level 1: Beginner · Insporta Book (https://book.insporta.app/futsal/level-1/the-shape-of-a-match/)

The Shape of a Match in Futsal (Level 1: Beginner) on Insporta: 50 sourced facts behind 5 tests. Covers: five a side; twenty minutes, stopped; and more.

This sub-level teaches what a futsal match is — five players a side including the goalkeeper, two twenty-minute periods timed with a stopped clock, the one-minute timeout and the half-time interval; how a match is won or drawn and how a knockout tie is settled by extra time or kicks from the penalty mark; that futsal has no offside, so a goal is never disallowed for an attacker's position; the coin toss and the kick-off, including that a goal counts directly from it; and where the game came from, from Ceriani's 1930 court in Montevideo to FIFA taking it on in 1989.

## Test 1: Five a side

- A futsal side has at most five players on the court and one of the five must be the goalkeeper. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 3.1)
- A match may not start or resume once a team has fewer than three players on the court. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 3.1)
- The captain has a degree of responsibility for the team's behaviour but no special status or privileges under the Laws. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 3.12)
- One of a team's players must be the goalkeeper; the other roles are tactical choices, not requirements. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 3.1)
- Futsal is played on a flat, hard court, typically indoors; grass and artificial turf are not used. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 1.1)
- A maximum of nine substitutes may be used in a match played in an official competition under FIFA, a confederation or a national association. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 3.2)
- An unlimited number of substitutions may be made during a futsal match, and they are made on the fly. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 3.2)
- Each team is made up of a maximum of five players on the court, one of them the goalkeeper. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 3.1)
- A match needs at least three players a side to begin; a team may start with fewer than five and add named players as they arrive. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 3.1)
- The five-a-side side and the short match are usually traced to basketball; water polo influenced the goalkeeper's role and handball the pitch and goal sizes. (Source: General futsal history)

## Test 2: Twenty minutes, stopped

- A futsal match lasts two equal periods of twenty minutes of playing time. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 7.1)
- Futsal is timed with a stopped clock: the timekeeper halts it whenever the ball is out of play, so twenty minutes of actual play is longer in real time. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 7.1)
- The timekeeper times the match and signals the end of a period with an acoustic signal distinct from the referees' whistle. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 7.2)
- If there is no timekeeper, the referees confirm that the playing time has elapsed and signal the end of the period themselves. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 7.2)
- Players are entitled to a half-time interval not exceeding fifteen minutes, with its exact length set by the competition rules. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 7.4)
- When a penalty kick or a sixth-foul free kick is awarded as a period ends, the period is considered over only once that kick has been completed. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 7.2)
- Playing time is not extended in any case other than to allow a penalty or sixth-foul kick already awarded to be completed. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 7.2)
- Every stoppage pauses the clock, so a twenty-minute period of playing time takes well over twenty minutes on the wall. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 7.1)
- The twenty-minute period may be reduced only if the competition rules permit it; otherwise it is fixed. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 7.1)
- The period ends when the timekeeper's acoustic signal sounds, whether or not the referees also whistle. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 7.2)

## Test 3: Winning, drawing and deciding

- The team scoring the greater number of goals during the match is the winner. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 10.2)
- If both teams score the same number of goals, or none, the match is drawn; a tie-break is used only when the competition needs a winner. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 10.2)
- The only permitted procedures are the away-goals rule, two equal periods of extra time, and kicks from the penalty mark, and they may be combined. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 10.2)
- Extra time is two equal periods not exceeding five minutes each, with the exact length set by the competition rules. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 10.2)
- Kicks from the penalty mark are taken after the match has ended and are not part of the match. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 10.3)
- A player who has been sent off during the match is not permitted to take part in kicks from the penalty mark. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 10.3)
- Warnings and cautions issued during the match are not carried forward into kicks from the penalty mark. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 10.3)
- If one team has more players than the other when the match ends, it reduces its number to equal its opponents before kicks from the penalty mark begin. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 10.3)
- An abandoned match is replayed unless the competition rules or organisers determine otherwise. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 7.5)
- Law 11 for futsal contains only the statement that there is no offside, so a goal is never disallowed because of where an attacker was standing. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 11)

## Test 4: The coin toss and the kick-off

- The team that wins the toss decides whether to take the kick-off in the first or second period; the home team, unless rules say otherwise, chooses which goal to attack first. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 8.1)
- At half-time each team changes benches so that its bench is on the side of the court it is now defending. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 8.1)
- For the second period the teams change ends and attack the opposite goals. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 8.1)
- After a goal, the kick-off is taken by the other team, that is, the team that conceded. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 8.1)
- All players except the one taking the kick-off must be in their own half of the court. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 8.1)
- The opponents of the team taking the kick-off must be at least three metres from the ball until it is in play. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 8.1)
- A goal may be scored directly against the opponents from the kick-off. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 8.1)
- If the ball goes directly into the kicker's own goal from the kick-off, a corner kick is awarded to the opponents. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 8.1)
- The ball is in play at a kick-off when it is kicked and clearly moves; it must be stationary on the centre mark beforehand. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 8.1)
- A kick-off starts both periods, both periods of extra time, and restarts play after a goal; the dropped ball is used only when no other restart applies. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Law 8.1)

## Test 5: Where futsal came from

- Juan Carlos Ceriani, a physical education teacher, devised an indoor five-a-side game in 1930. (Source: FIFA Futsal Coaching Manual (2025), Ch. 2 (History of futsal))
- The game was created at the YMCA in Montevideo, Uruguay. (Source: FIFA Futsal Coaching Manual (2025), Ch. 2 (History of futsal))
- "Futsal" comes from the Spanish "fútbol sala" and Portuguese "futebol de salão", meaning indoor or hall football. (Source: General futsal history)
- Ceriani adapted football to be played indoors on hard courts, borrowing court and goal sizes from other indoor sports. (Source: General futsal history)
- FIFA took up the indoor game and staged its first Futsal World Championship in 1989. (Source: General futsal history)
- FIFUSA, the international federation for "fútbol de salón", was formed in 1971 and ran the game before FIFA adopted it. (Source: General futsal history)
- FIFA governs futsal, while the AMF continues the FIFUSA tradition, so the wider indoor game has two international bodies. (Source: General futsal history)
- Futsal spread quickly through South America and Brazil became its early competitive stronghold. (Source: General futsal history)
- The small court, heavy ball contact and tight space force frequent touches and fast choices, which is why many federations use futsal in player development. (Source: FIFA Futsal Coaching Manual (2025), Ch. 2 (History of futsal))
- FIFA publishes and approves the Futsal Laws of the Game; the 2025/26 edition took effect on 5 September 2025. (Source: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26, Notes on the Futsal Laws of the Game)

Sources: FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025/26 (approved by the Bureau of the FIFA Council, effective 5 September 2025) for every rule; the FIFA Futsal Coaching Manual (2025), chapter 2, and general futsal history for the sport's origins and governance. Both FIFA publications are free to download but not open-licensed, so questions are authored in original wording from these sources, never reproduced. A specific clause reference sits in each question's source field, never in the stem.

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