Brazil 2014: It's Not Over Yet

In the New Year the History of Goal Nets will begin focusing on our campaign to have FIFA install Brazilian-style L-supports for the games of the Brazil World Cup finals in 2014.

We don't doubt the scale of our task. Of the 12 host stadia, five are being upgraded, five are being rebuilt and two are brand new. We expect all will celebrate their revamped, state of the art status by installing state of the art boxnets and, if unchecked, you won't be able to differentiate a game from the 2014 finals with the finals of 2010 (or 2006, or 2002, or 1998).

But it's not over yet. We take heart that the goals in the Selecao's last home game of 2012 were scored into Brazilian L-supports, at Atletico GO.




We believe that with hard work we can ensure the goals at the 2014 finals are also scored into L-supports.

If you haven't already done so, please sign our Petition.

The History of Goal Nets wishes you and yours the very best for Christmas and the New Year.

Cue Grace.

A-list A-frames - Arbroath FC

The Red Lichties are famous abroad for a 36-0 and their Gayfield Park being the stadium closest to the sea in Britain...

But if you pay your entry money and walk through the gates of history, you'll see Arbroath once played between a set of A-frames as curvy as those at Tynecastle but skinny as QPR.

A-list A-frames - Motherwell FC

Though Motherwell are more popularly recognised for the Continental D's installed at Fir Park in the early 1970's -



The steelworks suspending the nets prior are more culturally appropriate for a club nicknamed the Steelmen and based in Lanarkshire, home to the Ravenscraig steelworks of the time.

A-list A-frames - Dundee FC

In the 1970's and 1980's Dundee and their neighbours Dundee United - separated only by the width of Tannadice Street - sought to differentiate between themselves by installing different systems for suspending the goal nets.

Though United were playing regularly in Europe they stayed with their A-frames, while Dundee, perhaps as a nod to their stellar 1960's European pedigree went all Continental with a pair of D's.




But further back in their History of Goal Nets, when the Dark Blues were themselves regular qualifiers for  Europe, the likes of Anderlecht and AC Milan were beaten between a fine set of A-frames.

Cagliari Calcio

Did Manchester United only start winning the league again when they replaced the Old Trafford A-frames with Continental D's?

For years Cagliari laboured between a pair of A-frames that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Eredivisie.




Then, with the peerless Gigi Riva in transcendent form, the Rossoblu's ditched the Dutch goals for a pair of Iron Man Specials and won their first and only Scudetto.

A-list A-frames - Aberdeen FC

Peculiarly for a club whose crest is designed around an A-frame, Aberdeen's glory days are synonymous with the Pittodrie Continental D's of the time.




But if you go far enough back - and peer through the snow - you see the Dons' History of Goal Nets incorporates a fine set of A-frames.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Nandor Hidegkuti

In 'The Ball is Round' author David Goldblatt asks, "How long does it take for an empire to die?"

Perplexed by the Mighty Magyars lightweight boots, Ferenc Puskas' beer belly and Nandor Hidegkuti wearing #5 but not playing centre-half - did he play what today is called a false 9? - England were behind within a minute and their record of 52 years unbeaten at home - and their WM formation - on its way to the history books.

UEFA Champions League - AC Milan

Milan have never shied from their English heritage. Founded by two Englishmen, with an Anglicised spelling of their name (despite Mussolini running interference) and an English-style stadium with no running track, the Rossoneri's embrace of their roots extended even to the on-field architecture at San Siro, which was modelled on Wembley's.

UEFA Champions League - Zenit Saint Petersburg

When Russia was the Soviet Union and Zenit Saint Petersburg were Zenit Leningrad, Zenit played at the Kirov Stadium and the goal nets were a pique of Soviet inefficiency.

Designed for A-frames (such as those at Kyiv) the nets were strewn over the Juventus-like stanchions like a kaftan on Kate Moss.




Like Spinal Tap's mini Stonehenge - supplied exactly to size - Zenit's post Soviet 90's Continental D's look like their goals manufacturer took the Subbuteo dimensions too literally.