This article treat the founding period of the IFAB during the years 1882 to 1886.   The International Football Association Board, or IFAB for short, discusses the football rules at the first of its two annual meetings in February or March each year. This is for its members, namely the associations of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland (until 1921 Ireland) and all member associations of FIFA, which was founded in 1904. Not all FIFA members are represented, but four of them. The four FIFA representatives can only vote en bloc, the four representatives from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland separately. A two-thirds majority is required for rule changes so that neither FIFA nor the four founding members of the IFAB can outvote each other. Changes to the rules of the game will come into force on 1st July. The IFAB was founded in London on 2nd June 1886 by the associations of England (FA), Scotland (SFA), Ireland (IFA) and Wales (FAW). Already on 6th December 1882 there was a meeting of these four federations …

In 1863 the FA was founded in London. The annual general meetings of the members [1]From 1876 an entrance fee of 5s was due; the annual fee until 1868 was 1 guinea, then another 5s – the latter was about the weekly wage of a worker. there was a board (chairman, secretary, treasurer) as well as a committee whose size changed in the first twenty years (1863: 4 – 1868: 10 – 1872: 17 – 1880: 16). The FA members were forbidden to play games against non FA members and to use other rules than the FA Rules. These were valid until 1874, from their decision in September (until 1865) and February (1866-1874) respectively. From 1874 they became valid at the beginning of the coming season in the autumn of the same year. In contrast to the evaluation of the Sheffield Rules, here I do not proceed chronologically, but (rule) thematically. I hope that this will make it easier for you to read. At this point I would also like to refer to the study …

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 …

On 19 February 1899 the Wiener Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung[1]Cf. NN: The Oxford team in Vienna. In: Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung [Vienna], 19.02.1899. p. 192. Last accessed: 04.03.2018. brought attention to the travel of the Oxford University Association Football Club to Austria for matches in Prague and Vienna during the Easter holidays. Oxford University AFC was 1899 a very successful club of the Football Association, still existing in 2018, but now playing in the league of the football teams of British universities and colleges of the Midlands region (around Birmingham). The matches against the Deutschen Fussball Club and Slavia (both from Prague) took place at the end of March, the matches in Vienna against a “mixed [nation] team” and “German [Austrian] team” of the Athletik-Sport-Club at the beginning of April. The article also introduces the players of Oxford University AFC with information about the previously attended college, size, weight, position and other sports they played. At 3:30 pm on 2nd April and 3rd April the matches were played in the Prater (now Ernst Happel Stadium).[2]Cf. NN: The Oxford team …

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 …