Futsal vs Arena Soccer Trivia Quiz

Answer: Arena soccer only

Arena soccer uses a synthetic turf surface or carpet for play, so ball handling is similar to what players are used from outdoor play. Futsal, on the other hand, is typically played on handball courts with a hard, smooth surface, wearing shoes with smoother soles instead of soccer shoes.

Answer: Arena soccer only

Arena soccer pitches are surrounded by walls of varying height, similar to an ice hockey rink. The ball may be played as a rebound from these walls just as in ice hockey. Futsal on the other hand has regular touchlines and goal lines and the ball can go out of play.

Answer: Arena soccer only

The different playing surface and smaller field used in futsal require a different ball as well - it is smaller and significant less bouncy than a normal soccer ball. In contrast, arena soccer, with its more turf-like playing surface and greater dimensions, is played with a standard ball.

Answer: Futsal only

Arena soccer is most often a 6-per-side game, although leagues are being run with teams of 4, 5 and 7 as well. In each case, only one of the players may be a goalkeeper, but many leagues allow replacing the goalkeeper with an extra fielder in case the team is one goal down near the end of the game, similar to the ice hockey tactic. Futsal is always played 5 a side with one goalkeeper and four fielders at all times.

Answer: Futsal only

Even though arena soccer is closer to the eleven-a-side outdoor game in technique and tactics, FIFA has chosen to sanction futsal only. Arena soccer is mostly played in North America and its leagues often have different rules while futsal is played using a standard set of laws worldwide. Futsal's "laws of the game" use the same numbering as those of soccer.

Answer: Futsal only

Futsal's time of play is twice 20 minutes with time stopped at each stoppage of play, while arena soccer uses four 15-minute quarters or, in many amateur leagues, two 25-minute halves.

Answer: Both variants

Both futsal and arena soccer use the standard yellow and red cards with their usual meanings, although in arena soccer, a yellow card can also mean a two-minute suspension and some leagues use a third, lesser, warning card (usually blue) in addition to the two standard colors.

Both games allow a substition for a red-carded player after the team has played short-staffed for a certain time: in futsal, the team must play one player down for two minutes or until conceding a goal (whichever comes first) while arena soccer imposes either two or five minutes, depending on whether the red card was caused by multiple lesser infractions (two minutes) or a direct red card for major unsporting conduct (five minutes)

Answer: Both variants

In both variants, players can freely substitute for one another and come back after leaving the field (except, of course, for players serving a time penalty or sent off). There is no limit to the number of substitutions. Futsal allows on-the-fly substitutions even while the ball is in play while arena soccer typically requires a stoppage of play for substitutions to occur.

Answer: Both variants

Just like in regular outdoor soccer, each team has one goalkeeper who may use their hands to catch the ball and enjoys some protection from direct tackles. Goal kicks or throws by the goalkeeper are more limited than in the outdoor version of the game because the smaller playing field would otherwise make the goalkeeper's privileges too powerful.

Answer: Neither variant

With a much smaller field of play (60 meters length for arena soccer, 25 to 42 meters for futsal), an offside rule would be extremely difficult to check and cause play to focus around the center line. Thus, neither game has an offside rule, although the futsal laws of the game do list a law 11 "Offside" in parallel with the outdoor game's laws, with the sole text "There is no offside infraction in futsal."

Answer: Neither variant

Arena soccer has walls on the touchlines, so few if any balls leave the field of play. If a ball should go over the wall or hit the ceiling, an indirect free kick is taken. Futsal courts do allow balls to go out of bounds, but the continuation is a kick-in instead of a throw - just like with goalkeepers' throws, a thrown ball would be too powerful on the smaller playing area.

Answer: Neither variant

The smaller size fields also come with smaller goals - a futsal goal is 3 meters wide and 2 meters high, while arena soccer most commonly uses a 2.7 meters by 2 meters goal. In spite of these much smaller dimensions, strikers will still score often because they can just come much closer and thus leave the goalkeeper far less time to react.