Player's Guide to FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game All Ages 2025/26

An unlimited number of substitutions may be made, and a player who has been replaced may take further part in the match.

• A substitution may be made at any time, whether the ball is in play or not, except during a timeout.
• The player coming off leaves via their own team's substitution zone and does not need a referee's permission.
• The referees do not need to authorise the substitute to enter.
• The substitute enters only after the player being replaced has left, and via their own team's substitution zone.
• The substitution is complete when the substitute has fully entered the pitch after handing the bib to the player being replaced.
• Until the procedure is complete, a substitute cannot restart play by taking a kick-in, penalty kick, free kick, corner kick or goal clearance, or by receiving a dropped ball.
• If the player leaving uses a place other than their substitution zone for a reason the Laws do not provide for, the referees stop play (though not immediately if they can apply advantage) and caution that player. Play restarts with an indirect free kick to the opposing team.
• Names of all players and substitutes must be given to the referees before the match starts. In an official competition a maximum of nine substitutes may be used, and the competition rules state how many may be named.

When the ball wholly crosses the touchline (or hits the ceiling), play restarts with a kick-in instead of a throw-in.

• The ball must be stationary on the touchline at the point where it left the pitch (or the nearest point to where it touched the ceiling).
• Only the kicker may be off the pitch.
• All opponents must be at least 5m from the point on the touchline where the kick-in is taken.
• The ball is in play when it is kicked and clearly moves.
• The ball must be put into play within four seconds of the team being ready or the referee signalling that the team is ready. If it is not, the kick-in is awarded to the opposing team.
• A goal cannot be scored directly from a kick-in. If the ball enters the opponents' goal, a goal clearance is awarded; if it enters the kicker's own goal, a corner kick is awarded.
• The kicker must not touch the ball again until another player has touched it, or an indirect free kick is awarded.
• An opponent who moves closer than 5m is cautioned for unsporting behaviour and, if the kick-in has been taken, an indirect free kick is awarded.

Restarts must be taken within four seconds, and the penalty for being late depends on the restart:

• Free kicks (direct or indirect): if not taken within four seconds, an indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team from the place where the kick was to be taken. If the team committed this offence inside its own penalty area, the indirect free kick is taken on the penalty-area line at the point nearest to the offence.
• Corner kick: if not taken within four seconds (or not from the corner area), a goal clearance is awarded to the opposing team.
• Goal clearance: if not taken within four seconds, an indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team.
• Direct free kick from the sixth accumulated foul: once the referees signal, the kick must be taken within four seconds, or an indirect free kick goes to the opposing team.

For corner kicks, goal clearances and kick-ins, the four seconds run from the team being ready to put the ball into play or the referee signalling that the team is ready. The kick-in penalty is in the previous question.

Goalkeeper restrictions. An indirect free kick is awarded to the opponents if a goalkeeper:

• controls the ball with the hands, arms or feet in their own half for more than four seconds;
• after playing the ball in controlled possession, touches it again in their own half after a team-mate has deliberately played it to them, without an opponent playing or touching it (no disciplinary sanction); or
• touches the ball with the hands or arms inside their own penalty area after a team-mate deliberately kicked it to them, including from a kick-in.

Goal clearance. It is awarded when the whole ball passes over the end line having last touched an attacker, and no goal is scored.

• The goalkeeper throws or releases the ball from any point in the penalty area.
• Opponents must be outside the penalty area until the ball is in play.
• The ball is in play when it is thrown or released and clearly moves, and it must be put into play within four seconds, or an indirect free kick goes to the opponents.
• A goal cannot be scored directly from a goal clearance. If it goes directly into the taker's own goal, a corner kick is awarded to the opponents.
• If the goalkeeper touches the ball again before another player has, an indirect free kick is awarded.

Accumulated fouls are the fouls penalised with a direct free kick, including a handball offence that is deliberate or makes the body unnaturally bigger, holding an opponent, and impeding an opponent with contact. Each team's accumulated fouls are recorded for each period in the match report. No accumulated foul is recorded when a penalty kick is awarded.

• A substitute, sent-off player or team official who commits a direct-free-kick offence also adds an accumulated foul against their team.
• The referees may play advantage if the offending team has not already committed five accumulated fouls and the opponents are not denied a goal or an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
• The timekeeper gives a signal when a team commits its fifth accumulated foul in a period.
• From the sixth accumulated foul in a period, the opponents get a direct free kick with no wall (see the next question).
• If extra time is played, accumulated fouls from the second period carry on counting in extra time.

A direct free kick beginning with the sixth accumulated foul (DFKSAF) is awarded for a team's sixth accumulated foul and every later one in the same period. If the sixth or a later accumulated foul is committed inside the offender's penalty area, a penalty kick is awarded instead.

How it is taken:

• A goal may be scored directly, and the kicker must attempt to score. The kick must go towards the opponents' goal; a back-heel is allowed if the ball moves towards that goal and it is an attempt to score directly.
• The defending team may not form a wall.
• The ball is placed on the 10m mark, or at the place of the offence if it happened between the defending team's end line and the imaginary line 10m from and parallel to the end line. In that case the kicker may choose either spot.
• The defending goalkeeper must be at least 5m from the ball until it is kicked.
• All other players must be on the pitch, at least 5m from the ball, behind the ball and outside the penalty area.
• The kick must be taken within four seconds of the referee's signal, or an indirect free kick goes to the opposing team.
• The kicker must not touch the ball again until another player has touched it.

Not every touch of the ball with the hand or arm is an offence. For deciding handball, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit.

It is a direct free kick offence if a player:

• deliberately touches the ball with their hand or arm, for example by moving the hand or arm towards the ball; or
• touches the ball with a hand or arm that has made their body unnaturally bigger. That is when the position of the hand or arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player's body movement for that situation.

Goalkeepers have the same restrictions as any other player outside their penalty area. Inside it, a goalkeeper who handles the ball when not permitted is penalised with an indirect free kick.

A player who is sent off must leave the vicinity of the pitch and the technical area. Receiving a second caution in the same match is a sending-off offence.

A substitute may replace a player sent off after kick-off and enter the pitch after two minutes of playing time have elapsed (the team serves a two-minute numerical reduction). The substitute needs the authorisation of the timekeeper or the third referee.

If a goal is scored before the two minutes are up:

• Five players against four, or four against three: if the team with more players scores, the team with fewer players may be increased by one player.
• Both teams on three or four players: neither team is increased until it has served its own two-minute reduction.
• Five players against three: if the team with five scores, the team with three may be increased by one player only.
• If the team with fewer players scores, play continues with no change until the two minutes have elapsed, unless the team with more players scores in the meantime.

A named substitute who is sent off, before or after kick-off, may not be replaced.