The History of futsal Or micro-football - as it is known in Colombia- Begins with Juan Carlos Ceriani in Montevideo, Uruguay. Although he is the youngest son of football, football has millions of followers around the world and is highly recommended by coaches for all those young people who want to start in the 'sport king'.
Football (also called futsal, futsal and futsal) is a collective sport that is practiced with rules similar to those of field football, although with some notable differences in size and number of players.
In this sense, indoor soccer takes place on a small court (38-42 x 20-25 meters for international matches) and the team consists of five people.
In addition, indoor soccer differs from field football in its origins and in its sports tradition, as it is not of Anglo-Saxon origin but of the Spanish-speaking world.
Latin America is, thus, the epicenter of a new discipline that soon became popular, thanks to the impulse of certain factors within the field football itself that enabled its advance in the public. Also, the prestige of the first international tournaments made him gain more prestige.
Uruguay was the country where soccer started from personal initiatives that sought to innovate in a sport that was already based in Latin America and enjoyed wide acceptance in Europe and North America.
However, their parameters did not start from scratch, but started and were inspired by the rules of field football, only this time they wanted to make a discipline more appropriate to closed spaces and smaller.
Infrastructure was one of the motors of futsal. Being in places like indoor gyms, this sport has plenty of versatility, since it can be played anywhere in the globe regardless of weather conditions.
It is not surprising that indoor soccer has crossed borders; Not in vain did the Brazilians adopt the Uruguayan invention and ensured that the supremacy of the 'Canarinha' team was maintained beyond field football.
And time was in charge of giving them the reason. It has been decades since football first came out to the public sphere and since then, parties have not ceased in which an excited crowd supports their selection to see it score a goal.
Several governing bodies, such as FIFA and the AMF, have been charged for years to ensure that these sports titan clashes are carried out in a fair manner and according to the rules of fair play.
Origin, diffusion and use of the term"football hall"or microfutbol
As stated in previous paragraphs, football is Latin American of origin. This means that the terminological coinage of this sport has neither English nor German roots - futsal is not a word of the Germanic languages at all - but of another language: Spanish.
However, Portuguese also had its contribution, since as will be seen in the following sections, Brazil was the second land in which this discipline took root.
Futsal court
The use of the term futsal did not begin its massive diffusion until 1985, in Spain. From here it was used in conjunction with other equivalent words, such as futsal, much simpler and pronounceable for non-Spanish speaking countries.
A dispute at the institutional level of the governing bodies of this sport was all that was necessary to end up registering futsal in official uses, which was well above the football field in Portuguese speaking countries.
The English-speaking countries, therefore, have opted to speak of futsal, not of indoor football or hall / lounge football, since they are too forced and literal translations.
In Italy, on the other hand, they are called calcio a cinque or football hall, while in France it is said football de salle.
As can be seen, futsal is an idiomatic creation that has had a transcendental impact both in the Germanic languages and in other Romance languages.
The Uruguayan initiative
Juan Carlos Ceriani (1907-1996) was a physical education teacher associated with the YMCA who lived in Uruguay in 1930. In that year, the country was crowned world champion in football, which is why this sport was a sensation everywhere.
However, this discipline was still played in the field, so there was no room variant. There were children who wanted to kick balls, not to bounce them with their hands, as they do with basketball.
Ceriani realized this tendency and soon realized that a new sport could be invented taking other disciplines as point of reference.
This was because Ceriani observed how the children went to the basketball courts to play solely and exclusively football, since the existing fields were already occupied and therefore were not free to use.
But to reinvent football was to assume a challenge that it should take up with integrity, since it had to make new rules.
The rules of futsal were composed in a coherent way that reconciled aspects of basketball, handball, water polo, hockey with skates and, of course, field football.
In this way, Ceriani came up with the idea of creating indoor soccer by following these basic guidelines but at the same time brilliant:
- The five players, their strategic position, the duration of the match and the technical defensive lock, they come from basketball.
- Goalposts (which could be improvised or painted on walls), the prohibition of kicking the ball to the goal from any angle and the measures of the court, which come from handball.
- The technique of rotations, which owes much to hockey.
- The purpose of the game and the ball, which are typical in field football.
In this last one, Ceriani tried that the ball did not rebound as it does in the field soccer (for this reason is that the soccer of room lends much for the crawling passes).
This was how he, with the special assistance of the father of Professor José Esperón, invented a new form of football with its corresponding instrument of play, that is, the ball.
This contribution meant for Ceriani the fame and that the tribute that surrenders to him the 9 of March, day of his birth.
Also, it is unquestionable that Ceriani was the pioneer of futsal. Contrary to what some historians have suggested, futsal was not born in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo by the ACM, but in Uruguay.
The primary documentary sources undoubtedly evidence that Ceriani was the first to make his invention known to the United States in 1930, and that Montevideo was the first city where this sport was played.
The football room is spread around the world
The creativity of Ceriani made the football room globalize very quickly. The Americans, to whom the Uruguayan educator wrote, soon demonstrated their interest.
The YMCA for which he worked was not alien to this sport proposal, which was accepted with open arms and which resulted in the export of this discipline in the rest of Latin America. Although the issue of standards was still to be seen.
In this vein, the rules proposed by Ceriani were not the definitive ones because others were writing theirs. Thus, in 1956 some adjustments were made in Sao Paulo to allow indoor soccer to be played by adults and not exclusively for minors.
It was thought that a sport of this nature should have an international scope and not only the school, which was limited to the curricular requirements of the education system.
Of course, this explains why the change of rules. It was not enough that soccer was a means of imparting physical education classes; The sport had to become competitive, be played by genuine professionals, form associations and get the attention of the press.
He must, therefore, arouse the fury of the fans. And nothing better than organizing a tournament to achieve all these purposes.
Already in the 60's was when there was a football championship between the teams of Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Argentina and Brazil. Although the event was modest in comparison to the world tournaments of that time, this one did not go unnoticed.
The South American media did not delay in following closely this sport, which appeared reviewed like futsal in the radio, in the newspapers and in the television. Later, countries joined the wave of futsal, such as Bolivia and Portugal.
For the decade of the 80 world championships were played in which Brazil proved to be a selection as fearsible as it had been in the field soccer, when the 'canarinha' became famous with stars like Pele .
By 1985, Spanish television even recorded the parties, which made this sport devised by Ceriani was seen by millions of spectators.
The success of the futsal was thus consecrated, but was not exempt from lawsuits. The single name of soccer was the apple of the discord between FIFUSA and FIFA, organisms that disputed the official use of the word.
However, FIFA had everything to gain and FIFUSA had only to accept their defeat, which is why futsal predominated in their sports terminology. However, the harshness between these institutions was not limited until 2002.
After the era of the schisms came a more stable era of integration. Nations like Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Canada are united like selections that want to appear in championships of international stature.
In the 90's, the number of countries in the football field increases and that is clearly seen in the number of participants who fight every four years, from the preliminary rounds to the final.
In this regard, Brazil has been the favorite team. One of the reasons that explain this rapid rise of this selection lies in the fact that it has preceded the selection of field football, which has contributed to build its reputation.
In short, this country has a football tradition of the past, which is part of its cultural identity. The Brazilians in the futsal have five FIFA World Cups won, followed by the Spaniards, who have two.
Football has not had too many changes in its regulations, except for one made by FIFA in 2012 in terms of the number of substitutes per team.
However, a revolutionary detail in the evolution of this sport lies in gender, as it was shown that kicking a ball is also a women's thing. In this way appeared feminine selections that also have harvested their triumphs.
Proof of this is in women's world competitions. Although these have less diffusion in the media and there is a smaller fanaticada, women have not been ignored in the sport.
For example, in the five indoor soccer matches played between 2010 and 2015, Brazilians won them all; Therefore, they have hardly been seconded in prizes by the women of Portugal, Spain and Russia.
The formation of the governing bodies
In the football field, the creation of important governing bodies was not recorded until 1965, when the South American Confederation of Soccer of Salon was formed, which was conformed by Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Then, in 1971, appeared the FIFUSA (International Federation of Soccer of Salon), composed at the beginning by seven countries. Between the 70s and 80s, FIFUSA had the aforementioned litigation with FIFA because of the exclusivity in the use of the term football.
By 1990, Brazil separated from FIFUSA. After creating the Pan American Football Confederation (PANAFUTSAL), which, comprised of fourteen countries, resolved their differences with FIFA in early 2000.
Then, in 2002, the members of PANAFUTSAL made this organization to be founded the World Association of Futsal (MFA). To date, MFA and FIFA chair the affairs of the sport, although both organizations organize their tournaments separately.
With regard to women's football, FIFA has not organized or sponsored world championships since 2010, although it has received institutional approval.
In addition, futsal associations that are composed entirely by women have not yet been formed.
Summary of World Competitions (1989 - present)
Men's (FIFA)
| country | Year | Champion | Runner up | 3rd Place |
| Holland | 1989 | Brazil | Holland | U.S |
| Hong Kong | 1992 | Brazil | U.S | Spain |
| Spain | nineteen ninety six | Brazil | Spain | Russia |
| Guatemala | 2000 | Spain | Brazil | Portugal |
| China Taipei | 2004 | Spain | Italy | Brazil |
| Brazil | 2008 | Brazil | Spain | Italy |
| Thailand | 2012 | Brazil | Spain | Italy |
| Colombia | 2016 | Argentina | Russia | Iran |
Female
| country | Year | Champion | Runner up | 3rd Place |
| Spain | 2010 | Brazil | Portugal | Russia and Spain |
| Brazil | 2011 | Brazil | Spain | Russia |
| Portugal | 2012 | Brazil | Portugal | Russia |
| Spain | 2013 | Brazil | Spain | Portugal |
| Costa Rica | 2014 | Brazil | Portugal | Costa Rica |
| Guatemala | 2015 | Brazil | Russia | Portugal |
References
- Ceriani, Juan Carlos (1933). How the Indoor-Foot-Ball came about. Montevideo, Uruguay. Original document typed and digitized in PDF, belonging to the archives of the Uruguayan Federation of Soccer Hall.
- (1986). Origin and popularization of the soccer of hall. Montevideo, Uruguay. Original document typed and digitized in PDF, belonging to the archives of the Uruguayan Federation of Soccer Hall.
- Delmonte Boeri, Gabriel (2007a). Football Hall. Historical Review [Online article]. Montevideo, Uruguay. Uruguayan Football Federation of the Hall. Accessed January 16, 2017.
- (2007b). Juan C. Ceriani [Online article]. Montevideo, Uruguay. Uruguayan Football Federation of the Hall. Accessed January 16, 2017.
- For a rainy day: A brief history of futsal (2004, September 27) [Online article]. FIFA. Accessed January 16, 2017.
- Futsal History (No date) [Online article]. North American Futsal Federation, Major League Soccer Futsal. Accessed January 16, 2017.
- History of futsal [No article] [Online article]. European Futsal Association. Accessed January 16, 2017.
- Naurigh, John and Parrish, Charles (eds., 2012). Sports around the World: History, Culture, and Practice (4 vols.). California, United States. ABC-CLIO.
- Souza Santos, Yeda (1982, April 16). In ACM, the history of the Football Hall. Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Hemerographic article of the Popular Diary digitized in PDF, belonging to the archives of the Uruguayan Federation of Soccer Hall.
- FIFA Futsal World Cup Final. All editions [Online article, no date]. FIFA. Accessed January 16, 2017.
- Martic, Mico (2013, December 10). 4th Women Futsal World Tournament [Online article]. Retrieved on January 16, 2017
- World Tournament [Online article]. Accessed January 16, 2017.
- Ranocchiari, Luca (2010, December 3). 1st Women Futsal World Tournament [Online article]. Accessed January 16, 2017.
- (2011, December 2). 2nd Women Futsal World Tournament [Online article]. Accessed January 16, 2017.
- (2012, November 19). 3rd Women Futsal World Tournament [Online article]. Accessed January 16, 2017.
- (2015, November 24). 6th Women Futsal World Tournament [Online article]. Accessed January 16, 2017.