Starting in Uruguay and perfected in Brazil, Futsal is a fast-paced, indoor version of Football. Played on a hard court field 38-42 metres in length and 18-25 metres in width, utilising goals 3 metres in length, as well as boundary lines and a smaller and heavier ball than in conventional Football, Futsal encourages a more technical style of play than it's counterpart.
Futsal has become a highly entertaining sport following its vast imporvements in the past decade, such as the introduction of the stop-clock, meaning that play is stopped whenever the ball exits the boundaries of the field, allowing matches to be played for the full 40 minutes (20 minute halves). The modern game is also far more renowned worldwide than it was a mere ten years ago, players and teams now being endorsed by sporting franchises such as Nike, Adidas, Puma and Umbro. Since the 2007 UEFA Futsal Championship in Portugal, all major Futsal tournaments have been broadcast live on Eurosport, and a rapid rise in awareness and popularity for the sport has been evident since. The greatest rise in popularity occured during the 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup in Brazil, as all matches were streamed live on the internet via. FIFA's official webiste, FIFA.com, when record audiences tuned in to view the tournament's proceedings.
Requiring a high level of technical skill and ball control, as well as teamwork and fitness, Futsal is an unpredictable game filled with swift passing, sharp shooting, combination play, tactical awareness and fancy footwork. In recent years players such as Brazilian legend Falcão, Spanish captain Javi Rodriguez and Portuguese star Ricardinho have showcased their extraordinary talent to the world; the Spanish and Brazilian national sides have been by far the most successful in Futsal on the international stage, and at a club level Spanish giants Interviú Madrid have been dominant, especially in the UEFA Futsal Cup.
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