ABSTRACT
Futsal is the indoor version of soccer that is officially sanctioned by soccer’s international governing body (Fédération de Football Association, FIFA). Every four years since 1989 a World Championship has been contested by 16 national teams. Despite its popularity and competitive status, there have only been a few investigations that have examined futsal. Furthermore the reports available in the international literature only addressed game analysis or the physiological demands of small-sided versions of soccer played at recreational level (Barbero et al., 2008; Castagna et al., 2007) but not at the professional level. To date, no studies have described the V
. o2 max heart rate and blood lactate concentrations
([la]b) of professional futsal players during the game. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine V
. o2 max HR and [la]b in professional futsal players during
competitive match-play. It was hypothesised that professional futsal playing induces physiological demands different from those previously reported during targeted training in professional soccer players (Hoff et al., 2002).
