Original Soccer Rulebook Sells for $1.42 Million

An 1857 handwritten pamphlet laying out the rules of football — or what we in the US call soccer — has sold for $1.42 million at Sotheby’s in London.

And it seems not much has changed — the pamphlet discusses several moves still used today, such as the corner kick, cross bar and indirect free kick.

The work was auctioned off to raise money for Sheffield FC, the world’s oldest soccer club. Its chairman Richard Tims says there was “huge international interest, reflecting the truly global appeal of both the game itself and its remarkable evolution.”

[ESPN]