Offside (field hockey)

The evolution of the field hockey offside rule culminated with its abolition in the mid-1990s.

A set of rules of field hockey was drawn up by several clubs in London in January 1876 following the establishment of the first, briefly existing, Hockey Association (of England) the year before.

Under this rule, a player who was nearer to the opponent team's goal-line than both the ball and the third to last opponent was said to be at an offside position (simply put: an attacking player was offside if the ball was behind them and there were fewer than three defenders between them and the goal they were attacking).

In 1886, the second England Hockey Association drew up a code of Rules based on those used by clubs in the London area.

[1] The aims of this change were: New tactics were developed by many teams to exploit this new rule.