With FIFA World Cup 2014 almost upon us, The History of Goalnets celebrates the start of the new Brazilian Serie A season by visiting the Serie A stadia and checking out the on-field architecture at each.
Until recently, Brazil was one of the only countries left in world football which rebelled against this era of uniform and homogenous box-nets, and where the native system deployed to support the nets -
L-supports, in Brazil's case - could still be seen.
As the World Cup has crept closer, and the focus of the game's global policeman FIFA has sharpened, so the native L-supports have largely been replaced. But not all...
When the World Cup final is played at
Estadio do Maracana on 13 July, you can be sure the nets will be firmly tied back and hang like square tents that can't be differentiated from those in
Munich 1974,
Mexico City 1986, and the last four, utterly uniform, World Cup finals.
However, when Fluminense kicked off their 2014 season at Maracana last weekend, the nets were hanging in the shape of L-supports. OK, the hardware has been shorn of the actual L-supports, so the nets are still tied to stanchions, like box nets. Interestingly the ground staff have chosen to tie the nets so they're shaped like
classic L-supports.
Might this be because of
complaints during last year's Confederations Cup that the nets at the renovated Maracana had been changed and the spirit of the old stadium lost?
