Futsal rules for players: what changes when you move indoors

Law 3 gives each team at most five players on the court, one of them the goalkeeper. A match cannot start or resume if a team has fewer than three.

Substitutions are where futsal differs most from 11-a-side. Substitutions are unlimited, and you can make them while the ball is in play. A player who has gone off may come back on later. In official competitions a team may use up to nine substitutes, and every name has to be on the list given to the referees before kick-off.

The change itself has strict steps:

• The player coming off leaves through your own team's substitution zone, the 5-metre strip in front of your bench, in the half your team defends. The zones swap sides at half-time.
• The substitute enters through the same zone, only after the other player is fully off, and takes the bib from them.
• Nobody asks the referees for permission.
• No substitutions during a timeout. They wait for the signal that ends it.

Enter too early or from the wrong place and the referees stop play, caution the substitute and restart with an indirect free kick to the opponents.

When the ball crosses the touchline, or hits the ceiling, the opponents restart with a kick-in (Law 15). The ball must be stationary on the touchline, the kicker may stand off the court, and opponents stay at least 5 metres away. You cannot score directly from a kick-in.

Once your team is ready, the referee counts four seconds with a raised hand. The count runs at kick-ins, corners, free kicks and goal clearances, and not at kick-offs or penalty kicks. Take too long and the restart goes to the other team:

• slow kick-in: kick-in to the opponents;
• slow corner: goal clearance to the opponents;
• slow free kick or goal clearance: indirect free kick to the opponents.

There is no offside in futsal (Law 11). A forward can wait next to the opposing goalkeeper all match, and defenders have to mark that player instead of stepping up to leave them stranded.

The goalkeeper restarts play after the ball goes over the end line with a goal clearance (Law 16). It is thrown or released by hand from anywhere in the penalty area, within four seconds, and opponents stay outside the area until the ball is in play.

Law 12 adds three limits. Each one is punished with an indirect free kick:

• controlling the ball with hands, arms or feet in your own half for more than four seconds;
• touching the ball again in your own half after a team-mate has deliberately played it back to you, before an opponent has touched it;
• handling the ball in the penalty area after a team-mate has deliberately kicked it to you, kick-ins included.

Some youth and grassroots competitions also ban the goalkeeper from throwing the ball straight over the halfway line. The Laws allow that rule only where domestic rules introduce it, so check before the first match.

The four-second limit and the back-pass rule both apply only in the goalkeeper's own half. Teams chasing a goal use that. They either send the goalkeeper forward or swap in an outfield player wearing a goalkeeper's shirt, and attack five against four with a flying goalkeeper.

Law 3 sets the conditions. A substitute can swap places with the goalkeeper through the substitution zone at any time. A player already on the court can do it only during a stoppage, after telling the referees. The new goalkeeper wears a goalkeeper's shirt with their own number. Competition rules may require it to be the same colour as the main goalkeeper's shirt.

The risk is the empty goal. Lose the ball and the opponents can shoot from their own half.

Every foul punished with a direct free kick is an accumulated foul (Law 13.4). The fouls are counted per team and per half, and the count from the second half carries into extra time. When your team commits its fifth in a half, the timekeeper gives a signal. From then on the referees can no longer play advantage for your fouls, unless the opponents would lose a goal or an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

The sixth and every later accumulated foul in the half gives the opponents a direct free kick beginning with the sixth accumulated foul (Law 13.5):

• No wall. Everyone except the kicker and your goalkeeper stands behind the ball, at least 5 metres away and outside the penalty area.
• Where it is taken. From the 10-metre mark. If the foul was closer to your goal than the 10-metre line, the kicker may also take it from the spot of the foul.
• In your penalty area it is a penalty kick instead.
• The kicker must shoot to score. Your goalkeeper stays at least 5 metres from the ball.

On the court this means fewer tactical fouls late in each half and more defending on your feet. Short local tournaments often move the threshold. The Rheinland Football Association's 2024-25 short rules, for example, count fouls per match and award the 10-metre kick from the third foul when matches last under 10 minutes.

A player sent off after kick-off is out for the rest of the match. Their team plays short until two minutes of playing time have passed. Then a substitute may come on with the timekeeper's or third referee's permission (Law 3.8).

A goal can end the two minutes early:

• five against four, or four against three, and the bigger team scores: the short team may add a player;
• five against three and the bigger team scores: the short team gets one player back, not two;
• the short team scores: nothing changes until the two minutes are up;
• both teams short and a goal is scored: neither team adds anyone until its own two minutes have passed.

A second caution in the same match is a sending-off. A named substitute who is sent off cannot be replaced, so the card also costs you a player on the bench.

Each team gets one one-minute timeout per half (Law 7.3). A team official asks for it with the request form, given to the third referee, or to the timekeeper if there is no third referee. The timekeeper grants it only when the ball is out of play and the team that asked will take the restart.

An unused first-half timeout does not carry over. There are no timeouts in extra time. During the minute you may stay on court or step off, and you must leave the court to drink. Substitutes stay off, and coaches may not give instructions on the court.

Coaches usually save the second-half timeout for the last minutes, to set up the flying goalkeeper or defend a lead.

The futsal ball (Law 2) has a circumference of 62 to 64 cm and weighs 400 to 440 g at the start of the match. Dropped from 2 metres, it must bounce no lower than 50 cm and no higher than 65 cm on the first rebound. It stays close to the floor, so passing and receiving with the sole replace a lot of the volleys and headers you know from outdoor football.

Law 4 lists the compulsory equipment: a shirt with sleeves, shorts, socks, shin guards covered by the socks, and footwear. The player is responsible for the size and suitability of the shin guards. A lost shoe or shin guard must be replaced no later than the next time the ball goes out of play. Jewellery must come off, and taping over it is not allowed.

The Laws do not say which sole a shoe must have. Halls usually set that themselves, so ask the organizer before the tournament.

The organizer sets up the event. As a player you mostly follow the scoreboard, the table and the bracket.

• Formats. Futsal runs as a club tournament (round robin, knockout, or groups plus knockout) or as a league. The table and bracket count a result once it is confirmed.
• The match scoreboard has a countdown clock for 2 × 20 minutes and records goals and cards. A second yellow turns red automatically when the card is assigned to a player. A red card starts a two-minute countdown that ends early when the short team concedes. The board counts accumulated fouls per half, carries second-half fouls into extra time, flags the 10-metre kick from the sixth foul and allows one timeout per half, none in extra time.
• Local foul thresholds. The board's threshold is fixed at the sixth foul. If your tournament gives the 10-metre kick from the third or fourth foul, the referee keeps that count.
• Who enters results. By default the organizer. The referee with the match QR code runs the scoreboard, and the organizer confirms the result. If the organizer lets teams report scores, one side enters the result and the other confirms it, but only in group and round-robin matches. In a league only the organizer and co-organizers enter results. Knockout, consolation and third-place matches are always confirmed by the organizer.
• Walkovers count as 5-0 by default. That is a JudgeMate setting, and the organizer can change it.
• League lists. In a league you see top scorers, assists and cards. If the organizer turns on automatic bans (2 to 5 yellows per ban, 1 to 3 matches per red), a Suspended list appears too.

Friends and family can follow the match on the futsal live scoreboard and the table on the event page in live scores. How goals, extra time and shoot-outs decide a result is explained in how futsal scoring works, and the officials' side in the futsal referee guide. If you are the one organizing, the futsal video tutorial shows the setup step by step.