Futsal Rules: Court Size, Fouls and Play

Futsal is a five-a-side indoor form of football played on a hard court with a smaller, low-bounce ball, and it runs under FIFA’s Futsal Laws of the Game. Each team fields four outfield players and a goalkeeper, uses unlimited rolling substitutions, and plays two 20-minute halves timed with a clock that stops when the ball is out of play. The team that scores more goals wins.

That is futsal in a nutshell, but the details are what make it its own sport rather than just “soccer indoors.” The court, the ball, the fouls and the restarts all differ, and those differences add up to a faster, more technical game. Here is how it works and how it compares to the outdoor game.

The court and the ball

Futsal is played on a flat, hard surface, indoors, with lines marking the boundaries rather than walls, so the ball goes out of play just as in outdoor football. The goals are smaller than full-size soccer goals.

Element	Futsal specification
Players per team	5 (4 outfield + 1 goalkeeper)
Court length (international)	38–42 m
Court width (international)	20–25 m
Ball	Size 4, low-bounce (reduced rebound)
Match length	Two 20-minute halves, stopped clock
Substitutions	Unlimited, rolling
Offside	None

The low-bounce ball is central to the sport’s identity. Because it does not spring around, players are rewarded for close control and crisp passing along the floor, which is why futsal is so often credited as a technique factory for young footballers.

How play differs from soccer

Anyone coming from outdoor football will notice several rule changes immediately.

• Kick-ins, not throw-ins. When the ball crosses the touchline, play restarts with a kick from the line rather than a throw.
• No offside. Futsal has no offside rule, so attacking positioning is completely free.
• The four-second rule. Restarts, kick-ins, free kicks, goal clearances and corner kicks, must be taken within four seconds, keeping the game fast.
• Stopped clock. Time stops whenever the ball is out of play, so 20 minutes of futsal is 20 minutes of actual football.

These changes all push in the same direction: less standing around, more continuous, high-tempo action in a confined space.

The accumulated-foul system

The rule that most surprises newcomers is how futsal handles fouls. Ordinary fouls give a free kick as usual, but the game also counts a team’s accumulated fouls in each half.

Once a team commits its sixth accumulated foul in a half, every further foul gives the opponent a direct free kick with no defensive wall allowed, taken from the second penalty mark (about 10 metres out) or the spot of the foul if it is closer to goal. It is effectively a free shot on goal, which strongly discourages persistent fouling. The count resets at half-time.

The goalkeeper’s special rules

The goalkeeper in futsal plays a distinctive role. As in outdoor football, the keeper cannot handle a ball deliberately kicked back to them by a teammate. Futsal adds a second restriction: once the goalkeeper has released the ball into play, they cannot receive it again in their own half until an opponent has touched it or the ball has entered the attacking half. This “once per possession” rule prevents teams from stalling by endlessly recycling the ball to the keeper.

The keeper is also bound by the four-second rule when they have the ball in their own half, so there is no lingering in possession.

Modern futsal has turned this role into a tactical weapon through the “flying goalkeeper,” where a team pushes its keeper up as an extra outfield player to create a five-against-four overload when chasing a game. It is high-risk, an empty net invites long-range shots, but it shows how futsal’s rules reward bold, technical play rather than safety-first football.

Timeouts and the substitution zone

Two more mechanics separate futsal from the outdoor game. Each team is allowed one timeout per half, a one-minute stoppage a coach can call when their team has possession, which has no equivalent in eleven-a-side football and adds a layer of in-game coaching. Substitutions, meanwhile, happen “on the fly” through a designated substitution zone in front of each bench: a player leaves the court there before the replacement enters, and getting the sequence wrong is itself a punishable offence. Together, rolling subs and timeouts keep the pace ferocious while giving coaches far more moment-to-moment control than they get outdoors.

Why players love it

Futsal’s tight space and demanding ball make it a technical crucible. The constant pressure trains quick decisions, close control and sharp passing, skills that transfer directly to the eleven-a-side game, which is why so many elite footballers grew up playing it. It is intense in short bursts rather than expansive over 90 minutes.

If you are coming from the outdoor game, the contrasts are easier to appreciate alongside our guides to how big a soccer field is and how long a soccer game lasts, both of which show just how much futsal compresses the sport. The absence of an offside rule is another sharp departure, our offside in soccer explainer covers the rule futsal deliberately leaves out.

The short version: futsal is five-a-side indoor football on a hard court with a low-bounce ball, two 20-minute stopped-clock halves, no offside, kick-ins instead of throw-ins, a four-second restart limit, and an accumulated-foul rule that hands out unguarded free kicks after six team fouls in a half.