FIFA.com - FIFA History of Football

1863: The Cambridge Rules are rewritten to provide the game's first uniform regulations.
1866: The offside law is changed to allow players to be onside provided there are three players between the ball and the goal.
1882: The associations in Great Britain unify their rules and form the International Football Association Board (IFAB) to control the laws of the game.
1886: The first official meeting of the IFAB takes place.
1891: Introduction of the penalty-kick.
1913: FIFA becomes a member of the IFAB.
1925: Amendment of the offside rule from three to two players.
1938: The present Laws of the Game are framed in a new system of codification, based on the Laws previously in force.
1958: Substitutes are permitted for the first time, albeit only for an injured goalkeeper and one other injured player.
1970: The system of red and yellow cards is introduced for the 1970 FIFA World Cup ™ finals.
1990: The offside law is changed in favour of the attacker, who is now onside if level with the penultimate defender.
1992: Goalkeepers are forbidden from handing back-passes.
1994: The technical area is introduced into the Laws of the Game, with the Fourth Official following the next year.
1996: Linesmen are renamed Assistant Referees.
1997: The Laws are revised.

Modern football was born in 1863 when the English Football Association was founded yet the roots of the game stretch back centuries. Indeed there is evidence they were kicking a rudimentary ball around more than 2,000 years ago in China. Other countries have their own claims to have played the first football - ancient Greece and Rome included - but it was in England where the village contests of medieval times evolved into popular ball games in the public schools of the 19th century. By 1863, the first basic rules were established. Tripping opponents was forbidden and handling the ball would soon follow suit. The new sport did not look back.