Throw ins, Free Kicks and Offsides

[cmonurz]

Players can automatically knock their rating up by 0.5 by removing items of clothing during the match.

Strange way to come out of the closet m8. Maybe you're just really curious about Titus Bramble.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

But your prediction is refuted by what actually happened before the offside rule, which is implied above.

When was the game played without an offside rule?

At first the game was like rugby, in that anyone ahead of the ball was offside. It was a much more physical game in its infancy, and driving the ball forward physically, or whacking it and chasing it like a bunch of 6 year olds playing, was more the order of the day. It was until after foward passing was allowed that passing (as in keeping possession) as a tactic was invented.

The "three players between the attacker and the goal line" offside ruling was no doubt decided upon to stop people just goal-hanging, but nobody really knows what would happen tactically if the game was changed.

The "three players..." was changed to two in the 1920s because teams were playing the offside trap so much (with the benefit of a defender able to play deeper in case the trap failed), when the goals per game was dropping to more or less today's levels.