Football Rules Codified
The Football Association was formed in England, establishing the standardized rules of association football
October 26, 1863
The Day Football Got Its Rules
On October 26, 1863, representatives from 11 London football clubs and schools gathered at the Freemasons' Tavern in London and founded the Football Association — the FA — and set about creating a unified set of rules for association football. Before this meeting, football was played under a chaotic variety of local rules that varied from school to school and city to city. Some versions allowed carrying the ball, some allowed tripping, and some allowed handling the ball freely. The attempt to create one agreed-upon code immediately exposed a fundamental disagreement: whether players should be allowed to run with the ball in hand and hack opponents on the shin.
The Split That Created Two Sports
The argument over hacking and carrying led to a decisive split. Those who wanted to keep hacking and running with the ball eventually went their own way and developed what became rugby football. Those who banned hacking and handling — except for the goalkeeper — created the game of association football, which became known as soccer in England and football everywhere else. The FA's rules were revised and refined several times in subsequent years, but the fundamental character of the game — players using their feet to control and pass a round ball, with goalkeepers as the only permitted handlers — was established in 1863 and has never fundamentally changed.
The World's Game
From that meeting in a London pub, association football grew to become the most widely played and watched sport in human history. FIFA estimates that approximately 265 million people actively play football worldwide, and billions more follow it as fans. The sport is played professionally in nearly every country, with the English Premier League, Spain's La Liga, and other top European leagues broadcast globally to massive audiences. The FIFA World Cup, held every four years, is the single most watched sporting event on Earth. All of it traces its origins to a group of men in Victorian London trying to agree on whether you should be allowed to kick your opponent in the shins.