Match of the Day - Week 9

Match of the Day previews this weekend's Chelsea v Manchester United, by looking back at the same fixture in late 1992 and the iconic Stamford Bridge hardware (then in its second last season before being replaced by box nets).



Cantona's equaliser is particularly awesome, the way the ball is attracted to, then sticks to the stanchion, like a magnet.

A-list A-frames - Crystal Palace FC

Involved as they were in one of football's greatest 'ghost goals' (which many erroneously credit with the box nets of today) the Eagles have a special place in the history of goal nets.




Selhurst Park - like those at Coventry's Highfield Road at the time of Clive Allen and the blind referee - was a long time home to classic English-style A-frames.

1972

1989

Then 1995, Eric Cantona and all that...

Goias Esporte Clube - Brasileiro 2014

Goias play at the splendid Estadio Serra Dourada, the hardware at which, to this day, is native Brazilian L-supports.



Sadly passed over for World Cup 2014, Serra Dourada nonetheless hosted the Selecao in last week's warm up match versus Panama.




I believe most football fans - be they goal nets aficionados or not - would identify the L-supports at Serra Dourada with Brazil as surely as anyone in the street would identify the yellow shirts and blue shorts as the Selecao.

Eric Cantona was in the papers last week arguing global commoditised football would damage the game, and aren't FIFA's homogenous box nets one of the most visual examples of global commoditised football?

I believe it's therefore a simple argument to make that the loss of identity suffered as a result of FIFA replacing the native L-supports as per those at Serra Dourada for the generic box nets installed at the 12 stadia for World Cup 2014 is damaging to the game.