- published: 06 Jul 2011
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Footvolley (Portuguese: Futevôlei) is a sport which combines aspects of beach volleyball and football (soccer).
Footvolley was created in Brazil, by Octavio de Moraes, in 1965 in Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach as a means for football players to be able to touch the ball without violating the formal football ban at the time. Players would bring a football; but opt for the volleyball courts when the police would come ask for their ball. The game of footvolley - first call 'pevoley' literally meaning "footvolley" was discarded for "futevolei". Footvolley started in Rio de Janeiro; however cities like Recife, Salvador, Brasilia, Goiania, Santos, and Florianopolis have players who have been playing footvolley since the 1970s.
Teams of footvolley had five a side initially. Due to the skill level of the then footvolley athletes (nearly all were professional football players); the ball would rarely drop. Thus, the players began lowering the number of players on each side, eventually settling on 2 versus 2, which is still in use today.