Futsal competitions
Article summary
UEFA competitions and support for the grassroots game are helping European futsal go from strength to strength.
Article top media content
Article body
For an indication of futsal’s growth, look no further than the 2022 UEFA Futsal Champions League. Latvia is not a traditional futsal heartland and has never had a side reach the finals, but some 8,442 fans attended the 2022 decider between Barça and Sporting CP in Riga – a record for a neutral UEFA club futsal fixture.
Futsal participate rates and popularity are rising exponentially – UEFA Futsal EURO 2022 was watched by 19.8 million viewers, while our UEFA.com futsal section attracted 1.8 million viewers. It’s a success story that reflects the energy and resilience of the largely amateur European futsal community, but UEFA is also playing an important role – both by running four showpiece competitions and funding the game’s development at all levels of the football pyramid.
Futsal in Europe is growing
Player pathways
Like all our youth competitions, the Under-19 Futsal Championship provides talented young futsal players with a clear path to the top of the game. The competition offers first-hand experience of playing in front of packed indoor arenas, as well as the chance to test individual skills against Europe’s best up-and-coming players.
"When you are young, it is difficult to play at the top level. But it helped us grow more quickly."
With UEFA encouragement, Europe’s associations are also making futsal a key part of their national grassroots strategies to grow the game. For example, the French Football Federation has drawn on our HatTrick development programme to fund the nationwide conversion of outdoor sport spaces into dedicated futsal courts.
Increasingly, futsal is also opening alternative routes into senior football. Witness European clubs’ recognition of the format’s role in developing creative, intelligent footballers. For example, Juventus hired Alessio Musti, the coach of the Italian national futsal side, to lead a programme integrating futsal into their youth football teams.
"If I were five or six years old, I would start off playing futsal. It’s vital that kids get lots of touches of the ball for the development of technique."
New formats to raise standards
Across the board, our futsal competitions are giving men’s and women’s players the opportunity to showcase this thrilling, dynamic format to wider audiences. In 2022, four UEFA futsal trophies were lifted – more than ever before in a single season – for men’s and women’s national teams, clubs and youth teams. The first Futsal Finalissima was also contested between the top European and South American men’s teams.
The Futsal Champions League continues to expand, a reflection of an increase in the number of domestic leagues, often in places where futsal was not even recognisable a few seasons ago. The 2021/22 edition saw 56 clubs representing 52 of the 54 eligible nations line up on the starting grid – more than double the number of clubs in the inaugural 2001/02 UEFA Futsal Cup.
"The EURO is the most important tournament. Domestically, the Spanish league is growing, but international competitions are what really help."
The UEFA European Women’s Futsal Championship has provided another high-profile platform for the sport’s top players that gives female players a goal to aspire to – and an added incentive for associations to support teams. The result is a surge in women’s futsal across Europe. Before the competition’s launch in 2018, there were just seven national teams in Europe – 24 took part in qualifying for the next edition in 2022.
In addition to new competitions, we also adjust formats to add to the competitiveness for players and the excitement for fans. For example, the introduction of home and-away national team qualifiers for our men’s Futsal EURO qualifiers.
Reinvesting in football’s pyramid
UEFA rewards associations that enter our futsal competitions via the HatTrick development programme, which channels men’s EURO revenue to all 55 of its member associations. In the case of the Futsal Champions League, each association represented at any stage receives €20,000 a season. With 52 nations fielding clubs in 2021/22, total payments topped €1 million. Further grants are made for entering the men’s and women’s national team competitions.
Direct HatTrick funding has also brought impetus to projects further down the futsal pyramid, such as the construction of San Marino’s new national futsal arena.