The origin of the rules of football
Where do the rules of association football originate from? Before 1877 association football was played using various codes but today the unified set of universal rules owes its existence to 2 main sources & one Scottish club. The 2 main codes of football prior to April 1877 were the (London based) FA rules (1863) and the Sheffield rules (1858).
Originally these 2 codes were very different. Both promoted a game played predominantly with feet but to different rules. The London inspired code was not widely played pre 1870 and when it was, appeared like rugby played with the feet. Players dribbled the ball individually and team mates back up if the ball was lost. The Sheffield game was much more widely played pre 1875 (188 clubs alone in just Sheffield). The Sheffield game was more expansive and more of a team game with passing between players and player formations across the pitch.
Over time both codes evolved by adopting each other’s rules. The 2 codes were almost identical by early 1877.
In April 1877 Clydesdale FC suggested a compromise rule change affecting the way the ball was played back into play from side touch, and this accepted rule change to both codes resulted in both sets of rules becoming merged into the unified code we have to this day.
Because the unification needed both associations to accept a third-party change in their rules the 2 codes became effectively amalgamated by compromise. One did not absorb the other. This is important because we don’t today play by just the FA rules that stated to develop from December 1863, we play by a combination of FA & Sheffield rules that started to develop from October 1858. 1858 is association football’s birth date not 1863.
From the Sheffield football rules we get free kicks, throw-ins, corners, no handling, the crossbar, the referee, goal kicks, changing ends, 11 a side, 90 minuets, the ball size and penalties. Due to not having a strict offside law (as the FA laws did) we also get early formational tactics, passing and heading from Sheffield football, basically modern football.
The oldest version of our modern code was written by members of Sheffield FC at 9 East Parade in Sheffield on 9th October 1858. These rules were then agreed and adopted by Sheffield FC at a meeting on 28th October 1858 at The Adelphi Hotel, now The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. These embryonic football rules are the earliest rules of our modern game of football, the earliest significant influence part of a code that didn’t become completely unified in till nearly 19 years later.
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Source: Steve Wood
