It already is very popular, surprisingly popular for a sport so new (in its present form, futsal has less than 30 years) and with a World Cup so recent (1981 was the first, still promoted by FIFUSA, Federação Internacional de Futebol de Salão, based in Brazil, where it was invented). Let’s not forget about Australia, Europe and most commonly in Turkey where everyone from a professional stand point to an amateur level play this game quite competitively not always with a small heavy ball but with a green furry ball Indoor Football is absolutely a common weekend, week night event and is very cut-throat between village v village and have much of a anticipation especially in European countries like Turkey and on a more instrumental note before Michael Jordan arrived at the Chicago Bulls the Chicago Indoor Football team & teams pumped more larger crowds at the United Center.
Futsal was taken over by FIFA, which changed its rules (notably ball weight and size, as well as a number of penalty changes) to make it incompatible with the original Futsal and took over the sport, aiming to make it global. Many clubs, players and supporters resented the changes imposed by FIFA, notably the ball changes, as futsal was characteristically called “the heavy ball game” and explicitly lacked wide shots and heading. Some FIFA changes were made with the explicit goal of making Futsal a feeder category for traditional football clubs youth squads (Neymar is one such player, who cut his teeth in FIFA futsal before signing to Santos F. C.). The small court is ideal for young players, retired players, and full-time working-class people. instead of the open field. Add to that that open fields are less and less common and we see that futsal is the ideal school category for football.
Within FIFA, Futsal became popular, but it has to compete with traditional football and with beach Football.
Given more TV schedules, futsal could be more popular, but it has become clear that it will never outgrow football itself, FIFA will never allow it. Yes, you absolutely guessed it FIFA has not let this beautifully creative game grow not just FIFA even the NBA was threatened along with Baseball, Ice Hockey any Indoor scaled games so Indoor Football was clearly very popular but could not withstand the massive industrial leagues however till today Indoor Football is the most favoured sport that fans and past players returned to very competitively.
