Page "Football in England" Paragraph 6

The Cambridge rules, first drawn up at Cambridge University in 1848, were particularly influential in the development of subsequent codes, including association football.

The Cambridge Rules were written at Trinity College, Cambridge, at a meeting attended by representatives from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury schools.

They were not universally adopted.

During the 1850s, many clubs unconnected to schools or universities were formed throughout the English-speaking world, to play various forms of football.

Some came up with their own distinct codes of rules, most notably, Sheffield Football Club ( the world's oldest club ), formed by former public school pupils in 1857, which led to formation of the Sheffield & Hallamshire Football Association in 1867.

In 1862, John Charles Thring of Uppingham School also devised an influential set of rules.

His brother, headmaster of the school Reverend Edward Thring, was a proponent of football as an alternative to masturbation, seen as weakening the boys, and through football hoped to encourage their development of perceived manly attributes which were present in the sport.

( These ongoing efforts contributed to the formation of The Football Association ( The FA ) in 1863, which first met on 26 October 1863 at the Freemasons ' Tavern in Great Queen Street, London.

The Sheffield FA played by its own rules until the 1870s with the FA absorbing some of its rules until there was little difference between the games.

A match between Sheffield and Hallam F. C.

on 29 December 1862 was one of the first matches to be recorded in a newspaper.