The offside law, Bill McCracken and, a century on, the decision that changed football forever

“One hundred years ago today, at a meeting at 22 Rue de Londres, Paris, association football — soccer — changed forever. The International Football Association Board voted that Law 11 of the game, the offside law, would be altered from season 1925-26 so that two players would need to be between an attacker and the goal line to remain onside, not three as it had been previously. This was arguably the most significant rule change since football was professionalised in the mid-1880s. It is possibly...