Offside is currently one of the most commonly used words when it comes to football. Why does this law even exist? What is the meaning of the offside law? Why is it the way it is today? And since when?

After the piecemeal comparison of some different sets of rules for football without or with little allowed handling, all of them will are compared in this blogpost. The individual comparisons: Rules, end of 1840s Rules, end of 1850s Rules, begin of 1860s   The field of the play The measures of the field of the play were only mentioned in the 1860s. Since they are quite similar here, it can be assumed that they have already been aligned and that unwritten agreements were therefore also in place. Goal measures Only in Eton there was a height limit which was already 7 ft in 1847 and did not change afterwards. All other rules did not mention any height limitation within this period. The width of the goal varied, if it was specified at all. In Eton it remained constant at 11 ft, in Harrow (1858) goals were 4 yd wide, in Cambridge (1863) 5 yd, at the FA (1863) even 8 yd. It seems that goals used to be much narrower than today. Number of players …

In 1877 the Sheffield FA adopted the FA Rules after several years of trying to find compromises. Between 1863 and 1877, there were meetings again and again, especially between John Charles Shaw and Charles William Alcock. There were attempts at rapprochement and open dissonances between the two associations on the rules for association football. A representative of Sheffield FC, from 1867 the Sheffield FA, was always present at the annual general meetings of the FA in London and also represented on the committee. But I don’t know what the relationship of Sheffield FC or FA to the London FA was like, because all members had to play according to FA Rules, which was definitely not practiced in Sheffield. (If you know it, please use the comments.) Sheffield FA and Football Association organized a game for December 2, 1871 with Sir John Charles Clegg, a game between selections of both associations to try out the rules of the other. Shaw and Alcock were the captains of the two selections. But no agreement was reached yet. But …

The image that football sceptics and opponents formed in Germany at the end of the 19th century mixed the medical concern – that the human body could not cope with such a long and enduring effort – with the national ideology of gymnasts, and mixed statistics on injuries in football, rugby and American football. In 1893, the Westminster Gazette in threatening words titled the soccer game „71 blooming youngsters have been killed“. Football puts too much strain on the heart and lungs. And if that doesn’t lead to death, then it’s the violent way of playing that regularly bursts bones. And in addition this unnatural, forward bent posture, which is not at all German. – So the opponents of the football play like also other kinds of sports. The supporters of the sports, English men in Germany at the end of the 19th century and enthusiastic German, refuted the accusations. Again and again the sports newspapers and the DFB’s football yearbooks before the First World War was justifying why football was not as violent as …