Five-a-side football — calcetto or calcio a 5 in Italy, futsal in its official indoor form — is football compressed onto a small pitch: four outfield players and a goalkeeper per team. Because nobody is ever more than a few metres from the ball, it is a game of first touch, quick passing and constant movement rather than of running into space. There is no space.
The setup
- Five players per side, the goalkeeper included. Substitutions are rolling and unlimited — players swap on the fly, without stopping the game.
- A futsal pitch is 40 m × 20 m; outdoor calcetto cages are often smaller. The goals are small, about 3 m × 2 m.
- Futsal uses a size-4 ball with reduced bounce on a hard floor; outdoor astroturf pitches usually just use a normal size-5 ball.
- Matches are typically two halves of 20–25 minutes. Official futsal stops the clock; everyone else runs it.
What changes from the eleven-a-side game
- There is no offside. Anyone can stand anywhere, which is why defending is about staying compact rather than holding a line.
- The ball comes back in with a kick-in from the touchline, not a throw-in — and in futsal you have 4 seconds to take it.
- The goalkeeper may not handle a deliberate back-pass. Futsal adds a stricter version: once the keeper has released the ball, they may not play it again in their own half until an opponent touches it or the ball crosses halfway.
- The keeper also has 4 seconds to release the ball in their own half, so there is no time-wasting.
- Most indoor and cage leagues ban slide tackles outright — a safety rule on a hard surface. Futsal allows a slide to block the ball, but punishes any contact with the opponent.
- Many small-sided leagues add a keeper-only area: an outfield player who steps into the D concedes a free kick, or a penalty if they were defending.
Fouls
- Futsal counts accumulated fouls per team per half. From your team’s sixth foul onwards, the opposition gets a direct free kick from the 10 m mark with no wall allowed — effectively a second penalty spot.
- That rule makes cynical fouling expensive, which is the point. Casual calcetto almost never tracks it.
- There are no throw-in-style restarts from a foul: free kicks are direct or indirect as in the full-sized game.
How to actually play it
- Play in one or two touches. Holding the ball invites two defenders, and on a pitch this size they arrive immediately.
- Use the goalkeeper as an extra passing option — going backwards is how you get the defence to move.
- Rotate instead of holding a position. Whoever is free takes the space; the player who passed runs off the ball.
- Shoot early. The goals are small, but you are always close to them, and the keeper has very little time to set.