The following are events in the 1860s decade which are relevant to the development of association football. Included are events in closely related codes, such as the Sheffield Rules. All events happened in English football unless specified otherwise.
There was constant discussion about the rules throughout this decade and several codes were in use. The Football Association (the FA) was founded in 1863 and its rules eventually prevailed. Points at issue among the various associations included offside, the throw-in, the corner kick, the crossbar and the now-obsolete touch down. Among the clubs founded in the 1860s were Notts County, Nottingham Forest, Queen's Park FC, Sheffield Wednesday, Stoke City and Kilmarnock.
Events
1860
Foundation of Hallam FC, local rivals of Sheffield FC. 31 January – Sheffield FC revised its rules to ban all methods of handling the ball except by a fair catch. The 1858 rules had allowed players to control the ball by hand as long as they did not hold and carry it.
26 December – The first match between Hallam FC and Sheffield FC took place at Hallam's Sandygate Road ground under the Sheffield Rules. The fixture remains the oldest in world football.
1861
October – Sheffield FC modified its rules governing the goal kick and the throw-in. 14 December – An article in The Field called for a common code of football. It inspired Charles Thring, an Uppingham School teacher, in his efforts to create such a code. He was strongly opposed to the Rugby School version of football and championed a strict offside law. 28 December – The Field published a letter from Thring in which he outlined his ideas for the "very first principles of football" including offside, use of a round ball and goals to be scored by kicking the ball under (not over) the crossbar.
1862
31 January – A new version of the Sheffield Rules introduced the rouge (borrowed from the Eton field game) as a tiebreaker. Goal dimensions were specified for the first time with two goal "sticks" twelve feet apart and a crossbar (or tape) nine feet above the ground. The change of ends at half-time was introduced but it only happened if a goal had been scored. There was still no offside law. 1 October – Following correspondence throughout the year, Charles Thring published a pamphlet called The Rules of Foot-ball: The Winter Game. Revised for the use of schools. It proposed a set of laws for what Thring called "The Simplest Game". Unknown date – Foundation of Notts County, recognised as the world's oldest professional football club. County began as a "gentlemen-only" club and played a form of football that has been loosely termed the Nottingham Rules.
1863
Summer – Ahead of the 1863–64 season, Sheffield FC adopted a "single player" offside rule which required that there must be at least one defending player between the goal and the first attacking player (or level with him). Monday, 26 October – In an effort to resolve the common rules issue, representatives of twelve clubs and schools in the London area met at the Freemasons' Tavern, in Great Queen Street. The meeting was organised by Ebenezer Cobb Morley, founder of Barnes FC, for the purpose of "forming an Association with the object of establishing a definite code of rules for the regulation of the game". The Football Association was founded with eleven clubs joining at the outset.
26 October to 8 December – The new FA held a total of six meetings to try and determine the rules of play. They envisaged a game played primarily with the feet and banned running with the ball in hand. Hacking was also forbidden. They did allow the fair catch, however, and as in Sheffield this earned a free kick. The bans on handling and hacking led to the withdrawals of both Blackheath and Richmond who, along with other clubs which favoured Rugby rules, formed the Rugby Football Union in 1871. The game created by the FA became known as association football to distinguish it from rugby football.
1864
7 December – Having been founded as an ad hoc team in 1862, Notts County was formally established as Notts FC.
1865
2 January – Sheffield FC went to Nottingham to play their first match outside the Sheffield area, against Notts FC. The game was eighteen-a-side under the local Nottingham Rules. Unknown date – Foundation of Nottingham Forest by shinty players at the Clinton Arms pub on Shakespeare Street in Nottingham.