Football

10
ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL.
compelled to secede, and the formal notification of the
withdrawal of the Blackheath club was duly made at the
following meeting, held at the Freemasons' Tavern on
December 8, 1863. The new code adopted on that
occasion, while admitting for a try at goal, had disallowed
running with the ball and passing, as well as tripping and
hacking. The first of these was, of course, the
raison d'etre
of the Rugby game, and the abolition of running would
have meant such a radical alteration in the constitution of
football, that it can hardly be a surprise to find those who
had been educated in the mysteries of that particular kind
of game opposed to a sweeping reform, which would have
reduced them to the necessity of unlearning the lessons of
their boyhood, and schooling themselves in a, to a great
extent, different game. The withdrawal of the Blackheath
club from the Football Association, December 8, 1863,
destroyed the last remaining hope of an assimilation of
existing differences. Since that time football players have
been divided into two great camps, the one favouring the
Association, the other the Rugby game, wide as the poles
asunder, though at the same time perfectly friendly rivals.
The code of December 8, 1863, the first issued by the
Football Association, will be interesting as indicative of
the comparatively slight changes that have been made in
the Association game since it first became popular thirty
years ago.
r. The maximum length of the ground shall be aoo
yards; the maximum breadth shall be
1
oo yards; the
length and breadth shall be marked off with flags; and
the goal shall be defined by two upright posts, 8 yards
apart, without any tape or bar across them.
a. A toss for goals shall take place, and the game shall
be commenced by a place-kick from the centre of the