World Cups - Chile 1962

Revisiting The History of Goal Nets series on World Cups - starting with Chile 1962

The Chilean FA told FIFA they had to give Chile the World Cup "because we have nothing else." So Chile won the rights to host the 1962 tournament and they got plenty in return: Garrincha in his prime, the Italy v Chile Battle of Santiago and these stanchions of almost perfect quarter circumference on which to hang the tournament's nets.




Though football on TV was in its infancy and the matches at the '62 finals were not broadcast live, the influence of the tournament could be seen in the stanchions installed at stadia as diverse as Estadio Bernabeu, Madrid -



and Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh

UEFA Europa League - Club Brugge KV

FCB have a glorious history of goal nets and, like NK Maribor, went to extreme lengths to keep their stanchions when box nets were deemed a necessary requirement.

In the mid-60's Brugge sported stanchions of a curve that suggested the Latin influence of Madrid and Santiago and would lead to similar at Feyenoord.



By the late 70's FCB were a force in European football and played between skinny A-frames that were classically Low Country.




The A-frames were still there in the mid-90's and the era of box net homogeneity. Exactly like those at  NK Maribor, Brugge maintained their identity by draping the box nets over the stanchions.

Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha - World Cup 2014 Venue

With bent legs and the air of a man playing simply for the joy of playing, Manuel Francisco dos Santos - called a wren, or garrincha by his big sister - is the mazy dribbling embodiment of diversity over conformity, of the individual over the team, of what Brazilians call futebol arte. 





Following Garrincha's retirement the CBF named the Estadio Nacional in Brasilia after him and, out of respect to the nation's most Brazilian of players, hung the goal nets from Brazilian L-supports.




However the old stadium has been replaced by a shiny new one for the 2014 World Cup, and the Brazilian L-supports have disappointingly been replaced by box-nets.

The famous Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues wrote, "He is considered a retard but Garrincha proved in the (1958) World Cup that we are the retarded ones - because we think, we rationalise."

Yet no thought has gone into junking Brazilian heritage by installing uniform box-nets in the stadium named after Brazil's most diverse player and there's no rational reason Brazil can't celebrate it's own World Cup between goal nets suspended in the traditional Brazilian way.

Heart of Midlothian FC

Too curvy by far to be included in any A-list A-frames series, the old stanchions at Tynecastle defy a Scottish or British categorisation even in an era of great diversity in goal design.


Might the possible source of inspiration for the Gorgie stanchions be those at the Bernabeu?

And might those at the Bernabeu have been inspired by the goals at the 1962 World Cup in Chile.

World Cup - Chile 1962

The Chilean FA told FIFA they had to give Chile the World Cup "because we have nothing else." So Chile won the rights to host the 1962 tournament and they got plenty in return: Garrincha in his prime, the Italy v Chile Battle of Santiago and these stanchions of almost perfect quarter circumference on which to hang the tournament's nets.




Though football on TV was in its infancy and the matches at the '62 finals were not broadcast live, the influence of the tournament could be seen in the stanchions installed at stadia as diverse as Estadio Bernabeu, Madrid -


and Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh