UEFA European Championships - France 1984

1984 was Michele Platini's tournament, scoring nine goals in four of the seven host stadia:







Nantes



Saint Etienne



In the Final, against Spain in Paris



And most famously in the last minute of extra time in the semi final against Portugal in Marseille



The goal nets at each of the seven stadia were uniformly coloured - mostly black - and free-hanging and were the classically French - the same style can be seen at the inaugural Championship 24 years earlier.

As part of the McDonaldization of the game at the 1986 World Cup, FIFA decided goal nets everywhere would look the same so today, the goal nets at France 1984 are a period piece, the last time you could watch a game at a major Championship and pick where the game was being played by the design of the nets.

 One last look at those in Lyon...

UEFA European Championships - France 1960

With little over a week until the start of Euro 2012, The History of Goalnets takes you on a slow meander back through the nets that have featured at each of 13 previous tournaments, starting with the inaugural Finals tournament in 1960.

Back then, only the four semi-finalists contested the Finals tournament (a format which changed only in 1980) and the Soviet Union prevailed over a talented Yugoslav side in the final at the Parc de Princes in Paris.



What's interesting about the goalnets is how little they change between this first final of the European Championships and the seventh final, held at the same venue in 1984.

World Cups - 1998, 2002 and 2006

Long before FIFA branded the ball itself, World Cup goalnets were once the signature of the tournament. You could see a World Cup clip on TV, spy the goalnets and identify exactly the tournament you were watching

But you look at France 1998...



Or Japan / South Korea in 2002...



Or Germany 2006, where box goalnets were first introduced, 32 years earlier...



and you see the goalnets, the goals, the clips... they all look the same