International Futsal Soccer Tournament

Introduction

The International Futsal Soccer Tournament (IFST) was founded by the Second Empire of the Golden Throne after the national league had decided that it was time to export the game abroad. Fortunately, the first tournament, the Golden Cup, found quite a bit of interested nations willing to design teams for the game. Although the Golden Cup is still in progression, it has been decided that the IFST will be hosting more games after the Golden Cup, having championships every four years, much like the World Cup.

Futsal Introduction

(From Wikipedia:Futsal)

Futsal is the indoor version of association football (soccer) that is officially sanctioned by football's international governing body, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), as well as the Asociacion Mundial de Futsal (AMF). Its name is derived from the Portuguese futebol de salão, which means roughly room soccer (salão means "large room").

Futsal is played between two teams of 5 players, one of which is the goalkeeper; in addition each team may have a number of substitutes. Unlike some other forms of indoor football, the field is delimited by lines, and not nets or boards which the ball may be played off.

Other forms of indoor football games, which are played by somewhat different rules, exist and may be referred to as indoor football, five-a-side football or indoor soccer. Those games predate the formulation of official rules of futsal.

The rules are as follows:

1. There is no off sides, however, the goalkeeper cannot hold the ball for more than five seconds outside the area. He must either drive it to the other half of the field, or pass it.
2. There are three cards: Yellow, Blue and Red. Yellow signifies an intentional foul, while blue is two yellow cards. A blue card evicts the player from the game for one game only, and the player can be replaced immediately. The red card is given after a certain number of yellow cards, normally decided by the ref, and the player is evicted for the game, and he cannot be replaced for said game.
3. You cannot wear cleats. Futsal soccer shoes are completely cleatless, and have a leather bound at the front to reinforce the toes, which receive the most damage.
4. The golie cannot pass the ball to the other half of the field without the ball bouncing at least once on his own side.
5. Six fouls in one part (of two parts) is a double penalty kick, without a wall.


Each half lasts twenty-five minutes, and the field is the size of a basketball court, but with all the lines standard to an eleven-on-a-side game; just miniaturized. The games are quick paced, and there is very little in the way of defensive play - it's mostly agressive. There are other tricks to playing the game, but they are tricks not rules, that nations will have to learn with experience.

National Teams

• Ariddia's national futsal team
• Starblaydia Maestros

Competitions

International Futsal Tournaments