Player's Guide to SAFA Futsal Laws of the Game Senior 2025/26

FIFA Futsal Laws 2025-26 (Law 7):

Match length

• Two equal periods of 20 minutes of playing time (the clock stops when the ball is out of play), which may only be shortened if competition rules allow.
• Half-time is no more than 15 minutes.
• A period ends when the timekeeper's acoustic signal sounds, even if the referees haven't whistled. The only extension is to complete a penalty kick or a direct free kick from the sixth accumulated foul awarded as time runs out.
• If extra time is played, there's no interval between its two periods.

Timeouts

• Each team gets one one-minute timeout per period. An unused first-half timeout does not carry over.
• A team official requests it from the third referee (or timekeeper) on the form provided. It is granted when the ball is out of play and the requesting team has the restart.
• During a timeout, players may stay on or off the pitch (they must leave it to drink), substitutes stay off, and officials can't give instructions on the pitch. Substitutions wait until the timeout ends.
• No timeouts in extra time.

FIFA Futsal Laws 2025-26 (Law 3):

• Unlimited substitutions, and a replaced player can come back on.
• In official competitions run by FIFA, confederations or national associations, a maximum of nine substitutes may be used; the competition rules say how many may be named. All players and substitutes must be named before kick-off.
• Substitutions can be made at any time, whether the ball is in play or not, except during a timeout.
• Neither player needs the referees' permission. The player coming off leaves through their own team's substitution zone (in front of their bench, in the half they defend), and the substitute enters through the same zone only after the player has left. The substitution is complete when the substitute, having handed their bib to the player coming off, fully enters the pitch.
• A substitute who hasn't completed the procedure can't take a restart.
• No more than five substitutes per team may warm up at once.

Offences: a substitute entering before the player has left, or from the wrong place, is cautioned and play restarts with an indirect free kick to the opponents if it was stopped. A player leaving outside the zone (for reasons the Laws don't allow) is also cautioned.

FIFA Futsal Laws 2025-26 (Law 13):

• Every foul penalised with a direct free kick counts as an accumulated foul, recorded for each team in each period.
• The timekeeper signals when a team reaches its fifth accumulated foul in a period.
• From the sixth accumulated foul onwards in that period, the opponents get a direct free kick from the sixth accumulated foul (DFKSAF):
  • taken from the 10 m mark, or, if the foul was between the end line and an imaginary line 10 m out, from the 10 m mark or the place of the foul (the kicker's team chooses)
  • no wall is allowed; the defending goalkeeper must be at least 5 m from the ball, and all other players behind the ball, outside the penalty area and at least 5 m away
  • the kicker must try to score directly, and must take the kick within four seconds of the signal
• A sixth or later accumulated foul inside the offender's penalty area gives a penalty kick instead (from the 6 m penalty mark).
• In extra time, the second period's accumulated fouls carry on counting.
• Referees may play advantage for an accumulated foul only if the offending team has not already committed five accumulated fouls and the other team is not denied a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

Under the FIFA Futsal Laws 2025-26, these restarts must be taken within four seconds of the team being ready (or the referee signalling that it is ready), and at least one referee shows the count clearly.

Referees don't count four seconds at kick-offs or penalty kicks.

Futsal uses a kick-in instead of a throw-in (Law 15, FIFA Futsal Laws 2025-26):

• The ball must be stationary on the touchline where it left the pitch (or the nearest point to where it hit the ceiling).
• Only the kicker may be off the pitch.
• Opponents must be at least 5 m from the point of the kick-in.
• The ball is in play once it is kicked and clearly moves.
• It must be taken within four seconds of the team being ready (or the referee signalling that it is ready). If not, the kick-in goes to the opponents.
• The kicker can't touch the ball again until another player has.
• A goal can't be scored directly from a kick-in.
• If the ball goes straight back out over a touchline without touching anyone, the opponents get a kick-in.

An opponent who stands closer than 5 m or unfairly distracts the kicker is cautioned. The goalkeeper can't handle a ball deliberately kicked to them by a team-mate from a kick-in.

FIFA Futsal Laws 2025-26:

Goal clearance (Law 16) instead of a goal kick, when the ball crosses the end line last touched by an attacker:

• The goalkeeper throws or releases the ball from anywhere in the penalty area.
• It must be in play within four seconds, or an indirect free kick goes to the opponents.
• Opponents must be outside the penalty area until the ball is in play.

Indirect free kick against the goalkeeper (Law 12) if they:

• control the ball with hands, arms or feet in their own half for more than four seconds
• after playing the ball in controlled possession, touch it again in their own half after a team-mate deliberately plays it back without an opponent touching it
• handle the ball in their penalty area after a team-mate deliberately kicks it to them, including from a kick-in

Changing the goalkeeper (Law 3)

• A substitute can swap with the goalkeeper at any time, without telling the referees.
• A player on the pitch can swap only at a stoppage, after telling the referees.
• A "flying goalkeeper" must wear a goalkeeper's shirt with their own number.

Domestic youth, veterans', disability or grassroots rules may stop goalkeepers throwing directly over the halfway line.

Law 3 of the FIFA Futsal Laws 2025-26:

• A player sent off after kick-off must leave, and their team plays short. A substitute may replace them after two minutes of playing time, with the authorisation of the timekeeper or third referee.
• Exception: a goal ends the reduction early for the team with fewer players:
  • 5 v 4 or 4 v 3, and the team with more players scores: the team with fewer players may add one player.
  • 5 v 3, and the team with five scores: the team with three may add one player only.
  • If the team with fewer players scores, nothing changes until the two minutes are up (unless the other team then scores).
  • If both teams are down to three or four players and a goal is scored, neither team increases until it has served its own two minutes.
• A player sent off before kick-off but after the team list was submitted may be replaced by a named substitute, who can't then be replaced.
• A named substitute who is sent off can't be replaced.

A match can't start or resume if a team has fewer than three players.

Law 4 of the FIFA Futsal Laws 2025-26:

Compulsory: a shirt with sleeves, shorts, socks (outside tape must match the sock colour), shinguards covered by the socks, and footwear.

Jewellery is banned in futsal. All jewellery (necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings, leather or rubber bands and so on) must be removed, and taping over it is not allowed. This is stricter than the 2026/27 outdoor Laws, which now allow covered accessories.

Allowed:

• soft, lightweight padded protective equipment such as gloves, headgear, facemasks, and knee and arm protectors (matching the sleeve or shorts colour, or all black or all white)
• sports spectacles
• goalkeepers may wear trousers

Colours and bibs

• Teams must be distinguishable from each other and the referees; goalkeepers must stand out from the other players.
• Substitutes wear a bib over their shirt, in a different colour from both teams' shirts and the opposing team's bibs.
• Numbering is set by competition rules, normally 1 to 15, with 1 reserved for a goalkeeper.

Under Law 2 of the FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025-26, the ball must be:

• spherical and made of suitable material
• 62-64 cm in circumference
• 400-440 g at the start of the match
• inflated to 0.6-0.9 atmosphere (600-900 g/cm²) at sea level
• low bounce: when dropped from 2 m, the first bounce must be no lower than 50 cm and no higher than 65 cm

In official FIFA and confederation competitions, the ball must carry a FIFA Quality Programme mark.

For children, SAFA's grassroots material recommends a size 3 futsal ball for under-12s.