Alva Review-Courier -

LAWTON, Okla. (AP) — Futsal is not a sport most Americans are even familiar with.

However, one Lawton man is trying to change that, in Southwest Oklahoma at least.

Mark E. Brown is the president of the Oklahoma Futsal Association and the Southwestern Oklahoma Futsal League. Recently, Brown was able to add another title, as he was named the Chief Operations Officer of AMF USA, the American division of the world governing body of the sport, the "Asociacion Munidal de Futsal", or AMF.

Futsal was created in the 1930s in Uruguay and probably would remind most Americans of soccer or indoor soccer. It is played on a hard-surface court that is smaller than a normal soccer field, and each team has five players. The goal is 9.8 feet (3 meters) wide and the cross bar is 6.6 feet (2 meters) off the ground. The ball looks like a soccer ball, but is filled with foam, making it harder to bounce. Like soccer, the game is played with the feet, with teammates kicking the ball around to one another. But unlike indoor soccer, the walls are not typically used for ricochets, meaning crisp passes across the floor are required.

Brown was recently selected to go with the president and vice president of AMF USA to Asuncion, Paraguay, to visit the World Congress of Futsal, the Lawton Constitution reported. They had requested their attendance to represent the American market and try to help the sport grow in America. They were officially sanctioned, and AMF USA was named as a member of CONCAFUTSAL, the confederation for futsal in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The sanction gives AMF USA the right for their players to play at local, statewide and national levels, and even internationally at the Futsal World Cup.

Additionally, there was collaboration with the National Olympic Committee to try to get futsal in the Olympics in the future.

Unsurprisingly, futsal is popular in South American countries like Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, while European countries like Russia, Portugal and Italy have sported strong national teams recently, along with Asian nations Japan and Iran. While it might not be a popular sport in the United States, that could be changing. In 2016, the Professional Futsal League was founded, and though no games have been played, the league has the backing of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who purchased a principal ownership stake in the PFL in February of 2016.

For the past three-and-a-half years, the sport of futsal has been played at the Lawton Family YMCA. The Southwestern Oklahoma Futsal League (SWOK Futsal) holds summer and winter leagues, and the Lawton Legends FC men's team was recently invited to play in the New Mexico Interstate Futsal Showcase. With the increased exposure and growth, Brown hopes futsal can become a sport Southwest Oklahoma can enjoy.

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Information from: The Lawton Constitution, http://www.swoknews.com