Sotheby’s is auctioning in July the oldest set of rules of football as part of an historic group that should bring in over 800,000 quid. The world’s oldest club Sheffield Football Club, is offering the collection that includes, dating from 1858, handwritten original draft rules and the only surviving copy the Sheffield Football Club’s Rules, Regulations & Laws of the Sheffield Football Club published in 1859.
Sotheby senior specialist, Gabriel Heaton stated that the documents were very important to the history of football and form part of what lead to the development of the modern game and much of what the game takes for granted today, came from Sheffield. The sale by Sheffield is to help fund new facilities and to further secure their future as the home of football.
Many of the rules would be familiar to today’s football fans while there are others that may even seem quite liberal in a time when many are complaining about the refereeing. The early years of success by Sheffield was able to encourage other clubs to be developed in the area and to play by the same set of rules that Sheffield had and caused what some consider the growth of the world’s first football culture.