Following on from another thread on offside etc, came across this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_Rules

These are the rules football was played under in Sheffield from the 1850s, coexisting for a while with the FA rules but eventually merged.

No offside, and another whose reintroduction might help the game is that the throw-in goes to the side who touches the ball first after it has gone out of play.

'When the ball went out of play over the goal-line, there was a "kick-out" from 25 yards.'

The goaline then is what we call the byline now.

'the line of the goal-posts without going into goal"

There's a beauty in the 1871 version.

"Handling was permitted only if the hand or arm was not "extended from the body"."

152 years on, and that's more or less where they've gone back to!

It is a misnomer that the Sheffield Rules were ‘Soccer,’ that came from Eton rules. The Sheffield rules were the precursor to Rugby League when they merged with Manchester Football Association… hence Manchester Soccer clubs are in the Lancashire FA not the defunct Manchester Association. Lancashire adopted soccer forming the second London rules association, major movers being Turton, Bolton Wanders and Blackburn Grammar School’s Rovers….

I don't think the Sheffield rules were ever a form of rugby. Even in their first incarnation, holding onto and running with the ball was forbidden; you could bat it (forward or backwards) with the hands and you could make a fair catch, but it is specifically referred to in wikipedia as the kicking game as opposed to the handling game.