When they played the famous game of football between the trenches in the first world war they probably didn't use the off-side rule either ,and everyone agreed that was a great game as well. You keep repeating the same precedent(s) MtheG. That business about Moscow Dynamo is interesting as an anecdote but very short on detail .How come the Soviet Union adopted the off-side rule if the game played their way was so exciting ? Couldn't the Russians have sent the tanks in and introduced their exciting brilliant short-passing game to the eastern bloc when they were in charge there ? If it was that good they wouldn't have needed the tanks.

I'd say that the anti-abolishinists are up by about 2-1 on this thread, by the way . Not bad seeing as we're playing away from home on the abolishinists own thread. A bit of an own goal there from me yesterday ,but I did put my hands up to it.