This Week in Football History: FA approves the first laws of the game

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In the first of a brand new daily column, Adrian North delves into the history books and recalls some key moments in football from this week. Today, it's right back to December 8 1863, when the genesis of the game was created...

Law 9: No player shall carry the ball

On December 8 1863 one of the seven original members of The Football Association wrote down these simple six words. The seven founding fathers, along with Charles William Alcock, who founded the FA Cup nine years later, had groundbreakingly agreed upon this one simple rule and with it, football had its genesis.  

But while the FA came up with the 13 original Laws of the Game that spawned the true codification of football, they were not the first to draw up a set of rules.  

During the mid-19th century football had developed into a fully-grown embryo on the verge of being born. There was one major problem however - some kids wanted to pick up the ball and run with it and some kids just wanted to kick it.

Throughout public schools, where this quasi rugby-football game was most popular, altercations would often occur between opposing students over the fact that "up here in the north we only kick the ball, take your ball carrying game back down south where you belong".

And it was in the north of England, in particular Sheffield, where the 'kicking only' version of the game was most popular. In 1857, Sheffield FC, the world's first Football Club was created. A year later the founders of Sheffield FC, Nathaniel Cresswick and William Prest came up with a set of rules, The Sheffield Rules. 

The Sheffield Rules were the first agreed written set of rules outside of the public school system. But where the 1863 Laws of the Game differ from the 1858 Sheffield rules and the original 1846 Cambridge rules was with Law 9.

The Sheffield and Cambridge rules both allowed the handling of the ball in the instance of a "fair catch", where you were allowed to catch a dropping ball from the air, place it on the ground, and take a free-kick. This was a rather soft rule however - many players didn't take it to heart and there are few recorded instance of football in Sheffield where ball carrying was overlooked.  

On October 26, 1863 the Freemason's Tavern on Great Queen Street in central London was host to the most important meeting of early football history. Eleven representatives from football clubs and schools across London met at this quaint pub and established the Football Association.

The history books only remember eight of these men - Ebenezer Morley, the "father" of the FA, Arthur Pembur, Francis Campbell, John and Charles Alcock, Herbert Steward, George Wawn and James Turner.  

Over the next month-and-a-half several further meetings were held in attempts to create a single set of rules by which every player would have to abide by. The Sheffield Rules and J.C.Thring's updated 1862 version of the Cambridge rules provided a solid base work but over the course of these meeting two debates raged on - the 'dribbling-kicking' version v the 'ball-carrying' version and the "hacking" v "non-hacking" versions.

In 1863 the concept of tackling was simply "hack the other guys shins". Ebenezer Morley promoted the non-hacking version to his colleagues and, in early December 1863 the official rule book, called The Laws of the Game set forth football's 13 commandments.  

Law 8 still states the 'fair catch' rule but where the Sheffield and Cambridge rules largely overlooked this, Law 8 eventually became more and more strict, and by the late 1860s handling of the ball was exclusively against the rules. 

Not everything was rosy from there on out however. The 1863 FA rules had a tough few first years. Many teams up and down the country were unhappy with these new rules and preferred to keep to their own hacking and carrying rules that the FA had attempted to abolish.  

The embryo that was Association football was completely born in 1871 when several Sheffield and London based teams held a meeting at Pall Mall restaurant in London. This meeting saw the founding of the Rugby Football Union. For the first time rugby and football had become two separately defined sports. Whether or not these two sports could generate enough popularity to stay alive was the key question during 1871.  

Indeed, had Law 13 (No player shall wear projecting nails, iron plates, or gutta percha on the soles or heels of his boots) not been passed we may have ended up loving a game where Vinnie Jones instead of Pele is regarded as the greatest player of all time.  

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Adrian will be here from Monday to Friday every week with a key moment in football history - let us know your feedback on the column by commenting below or tweeting @Betfair