amator.appFutsal is the five-a-side game that FIFA governs. It is played indoors on a hard, flat court with a small, heavy ball, a stopped clock and a rulebook of its own: the FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game. The current edition is 2025/26, effective from 5 September 2025, and everything below comes from it. Futsal is not indoor football with ordinary rules. The kick-in, the four-second count, accumulated fouls and the goalkeeper restrictions change how the game is played.
What futsal is and where it is played
Futsal is played in sports halls on a flat, non-abrasive surface, wood or synthetic. A futsal league is almost always a hall league. In Poland most school and municipal halls are marked for futsal, and amateur leagues run on weekday evenings from autumn to spring, when outdoor pitches are dark or frozen.
Two referees run the game, one on each touchline, with a timekeeper and often a third referee at the table. That table is the difference between futsal and casual indoor football: it keeps the clock, the fouls and the timeouts.
Pitch and goal
The pitch is a rectangle, longer than it is wide. For non-international matches the touchline is 25–42 m and the end line 16–25 m; international pitches are 38–42 m by 20–25 m. All lines are 8 cm wide and count as part of the area they enclose. The centre circle has a 3 m radius.
Each penalty area is drawn from two 6 m quarter circles joined by a 3.16 m line parallel to the goal line. Inside it, the penalty mark sits 6 m from the midpoint between the posts. A second mark, the 10 m mark, is 10 m out and is used for the direct free kick that follows a team's sixth accumulated foul. There is a 5 m mark on each side of it.
Goals are 3 m wide between the posts and 2 m from the ground to the underside of the crossbar. They must not be fixed to the floor but must be weighted so that they cannot tip over. Substitution zones are marked on each team's touchline: 5 m long, starting 5 m from the halfway line.
Ball
The futsal ball is size 4: 62–64 cm in circumference and 400–440 g at the start of the match. What makes it a futsal ball is the bounce. Dropped from 2 m, it must rebound 50–65 cm on the first bounce. An ordinary size-4 football is not a substitute; the reduced bounce is why the game stays on the floor.
Team size and substitutions
Five players per team, one of whom is the goalkeeper. A match cannot start or resume if either team has fewer than three players. In official competitions up to nine substitutes may be used; in other matches the teams may agree a different number, and if nothing is agreed the limit is ten.
Substitutions are unlimited and rolling. A player leaves through their own team's substitution zone and hands the bib to the substitute, who enters the same way, at any moment, with the ball in play or not, but not during a timeout. The player who came off may come back on. A substitute who enters before their team-mate has left is cautioned, and play restarts with an indirect free kick to the opponents.
Any substitute may swap with the goalkeeper without stopping play; an outfield player who is already on the pitch may do so only during a stoppage, after telling the referees. The replacement must wear a goalkeeper's shirt with their own number. This is the "flying goalkeeper" that teams use when chasing a goal.
A sent-off player cannot be replaced for two minutes of playing time. After that a substitute may enter, or earlier if the team with more players scores first.
Duration and clock
Two periods of 20 minutes of playing time. The clock stops whenever the ball is out of play and runs only while it is in play, so a futsal match lasts well over an hour in real time. Competition rules may shorten the periods. The timekeeper ends each period with an acoustic signal, and that signal, not the referees' whistle, ends play, with one exception: a penalty kick or a 10 m kick awarded just before the signal is still taken.
Each team may call one one-minute timeout in each period, from the bench, only when the ball is out of play and the team calling it has the restart. An unused first-half timeout does not carry over. The half-time interval may not exceed 15 minutes.
Key rules that differ from 11v11
Kick-in, not throw-in
When the ball crosses the touchline, or hits the ceiling, play restarts with a kick-in by the opponents of the player who last touched it. The ball is placed on the line where it went out, opponents stand at least 5 m away, and the kicker has four seconds from the moment the team is ready. A goal cannot be scored directly from a kick-in. A kick-in not taken within four seconds goes to the other team.
The four-second count
Four seconds rule every restart: kick-ins, goal clearances, corner kicks and free kicks must all be taken within four seconds, and the referees count visibly on their fingers. A free kick or goal clearance taken late becomes an indirect free kick for the opponents; a late kick-in or corner passes to the other team. The ball is in play when it is kicked and clearly moves.
No offside
Law 11 is one sentence: there is no offside in futsal. Attackers may wait by the far post, and defences cannot step up to catch them.
The goalkeeper
The goalkeeper restarts play after the ball crosses the end line with a goal clearance: thrown or released with the hands from anywhere inside the penalty area, within four seconds, with opponents outside the area. A goal cannot be scored directly from it.
In their own half the goalkeeper may control the ball, with hands or feet, for no more than four seconds. After playing the ball, they may not touch it again in their own half when a team-mate has played it back to them deliberately, until an opponent has played or touched it. A deliberate kick from a team-mate, including from a kick-in, cannot be picked up. All three breaches give an indirect free kick. In the opponents' half none of these limits apply, which is what makes the flying goalkeeper possible.
Fouls and accumulated fouls
The direct free kick offences are the familiar ones — charging, jumping at, kicking, pushing, striking, tackling or challenging, tripping — when careless, reckless or with excessive force, plus handball, holding, impeding with contact, spitting and throwing objects. Opponents must be 5 m from the ball at every free kick. The Laws do not ban the sliding tackle as such: a slide is judged like any other challenge, and a tackle that endangers an opponent is serious foul play and a red card.
Every direct free kick foul is recorded as an accumulated foul against the team that committed it. The count is kept per period and starts again at half-time; in extra time the second-half count continues. From a team's sixth accumulated foul in a period, every further foul is punished with a direct free kick without a wall, taken from the 10 m mark or, if the foul was committed between the 10 m line and the end line, from the spot of the foul if the kicker prefers. The goalkeeper must be at least 5 m from the ball, every other player 5 m away, behind it and outside the penalty area, and the kicker must shoot at goal. A sixth foul inside the penalty area is a penalty kick instead.
Penalty kicks
A penalty is taken from the 6 m mark. The goalkeeper stays on the line until the ball is kicked, the other players stand at least 5 m from the mark, behind it and outside the area, and the kicker must play the ball forwards.
Cards
A cautioned player stays on. A sent-off player leaves and their team plays with four for two minutes of playing time, or until the opponents score.
Organising a futsal game
Book a hall that is marked for futsal, with 3 × 2 m goals and a table. For a casual game you can play without a timekeeper on a running clock, but say so beforehand. "Futsal rules, running clock, no accumulated fouls" is a legitimate arrangement as long as everyone has heard it. Bring two sets of bibs and a real futsal ball; a bouncy one turns the game into volleyball.
Ten players fill a game; twelve to fourteen let you rotate through the substitution zone as the game intends. Split teams by position first, two goalkeepers or two people willing to play half each, and then by level. With 5 m at every restart and no offside, a weaker team is punished less than in 11v11, so a fair split matters more than a strong one.
Referees are worth paying for in a league. In a pick-up game the four-second count and the goalkeeper rules are the ones to agree on, because they are the ones newcomers break. A game created on amator.app with the format set to futsal tells players what they are coming to, and the roster with its wait list covers the two who cancel at six o'clock.