History

Futsal started in 1930 when Juan Carlos Ceriani Gravier (French Wikipedia), a teacher in Montevideo, Uruguay, created a version of indoor football for recreation in YMCAs. This new sport was originally developed for playing on basketball courts, and a rule book was published in September 1933. His goal was to create a team game that could be played indoor or outdoor but that was similar to football, which became quite popular there after Uruguay won the 1930 World Cup and gold medals in the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics.
Ceriani, writing the rule book, took as example the principles of football (the possibility to touch the ball with every part of the body except for the hands), but he took rules from other sports too: from basketball the number of team players (five) and the game duration (40 actual minutes); from water polo the rules about the goal keeper; from handball for the field and net’s sizes. The result is a lively, evolved, dynamic, active and supportive sport.
The game spread immediately in all the Latin America, developing a cult following. It was easily played by everyone, everywhere, and in any weather condition, even in winter, without any difficulty, helping players to stay in shape all year round. These reasons convinced João Lotufo, a Brazilian, to bring this game to his country and adapt it to the needs of physical education.
Initially, the rules were not uniform; in 1956 the rules was modified by Habib Maphuz and Luiz Gonzaga de Oliveira Fernandes inside the YMCA of São Paulo Brazil to authorize seniors to compete. Luiz de Oliveira wrote the "Book of Rules of Fuitsal" in 1956, then adopted also at international level.
In 1965 the Confederacion Sudamericana de Futbol de Salon (South American Futsal Confederation) was formed, consisting of Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Argentina and Brazil.
Shortly after a unique tournament was organized and it attracted some interest in South American media, which usually began to follow futsal. In particular, it was the journalist José Antônio Inglêz to passionately contribute to the rapid spread of the game, as well as being credited as the man who coined the acronym “futsal” to define the sport.