LONDON.- Today, in a packed saleroom at Sotheby’s London, the earliest rules of club football – sold as part of the historic archive of the world’s oldest football club, Sheffield – fetched £881,250 /$1,420,663 /€998,807 (pre-sale estimate £800,000-1,200,000).This extraordinary and unique piece of sporting history, which represents a crucial step towards the evolution of the modern game of association football, was bought by an anonymous telephone bidder. The archive includes the earliest set of rules ever likely to come to the market – both the original handwritten draft rules (1858) and the only known surviving copy of the printed Rules, Regulations, & Laws of the Sheffield Foot-Ball Club (1859). Chairman of Sheffield Football Club, Richard Tims, commented: “In the run up to Sotheby’s sale of Sheffield FC’s