FIFA World Cup - Spain 1982

The 1982 World Cup finals were played out within a hybrid 24 team format, and between horrible hybrid goal nets that were neither the L-supports seen at Argentina 78, nor the monstrous box nets we'd see in Mexico four years later.

The Poland - Italy semi-final was played at Barcelona's Camp Nou, but you wouldn't know that if watching on TV and seeing only these charmless and characterless goal nets.




This is all the more regrettable given Barcelona played out the 1981-82 season between the stanchions that had made Camp Nou instantly recognisable on TV.



In 1982 Pepsi was a major sponsor of Real Madrid. However, such is the power of FIFA that for the World Cup finals they replaced all Pepsi signage at the Bernabeu with the logo of their own major sponsor - Coca Cola.

If FIFA could remove Pepsi, getting shot of the old stanchions at the Bernabeu was no problem.

Madrid played out the 1981-82 season between the old curved stanchions of Puskas, di Stefano and Gento.


And though the Bernabeu went on to host one of the memorable World Cup moments...



By removing the old stanchions - the on-field signifier of Madrid location for everyone watching on TV - FIFA effectively took the game from the grass of the Bernabeu and uploaded it to a placeless cloud called 'FIFA World Cup.'

UEFA Champions League - Sporting de Gijon

Until the 1982 World Cup, los Rojiblancos had a great history of goal nets at El Molinon, the oldest professional football ground in Spain.




If you sight the way the nets are supported in La Liga, post Espana '82, do they remind you of a famous upset at that World Cup?



Yes, El Molinon was the venue for West Germany v Algeria.



Just another example of how the goal nets can instantly identify a stadium.

Spain 1982 - FIFA World Cup revisited

The forthcoming World Cup tournament in Brazil is not the first time FIFA has ripped out the existing on-field architecture and replaced it with anonymous and homogenous boxnets.

The 1982 finals in Spain are a prime example of FIFA insisting on non-native hardware for a World Cup tournament. As I posted some time ago - and re-posted in full below - the hybrid format of the 24 team tournament was matched by hybrid goal nets that added no flavour of Spain to the Spanish World Cup (exactly the result the global brand managers at FIFA had in mind).

Barcelona played out season 1981/82 between their classic Chelsea-style A-frames at the Nou Camp.



But by the time the opening game between Argentina and Belgium kicked off, the stanchions - the style of which had followed Barcelona from their previous stadium, Camp de Les Corts - were gone.




Similarly, the instantly recognisable curved stanchions of Real Madrid greeted teams to the Bernabeufor season 1981/82.




Yet Marco Tardelli's unforgettable goal in the World Cup final was scored into completely forgettable goal nets.

World Cups - Spain 1982

A hybrid 24-team format, neither the 16 team tournament of old nor the monstrous 32-team affair promised by FIFA.

With hybrid goalnets -



Neither the L-supports of '78 nor the monstrous box goalnets monopoly promised since 1974.

Cue Sil doing Pacino doing Michael from Godfather 3

Wrexham FC

While goal nets aficionados and those with a bent for the spectacular would most readily associate Wrexham's Racecourse Ground with Mark Hughes goal and a pair of classic Continental D's…



A look further back at the Dragons history of goal nets shows A-frames like those at West Ham or QPR in place through the 1970's.






Then, when the Continental D's were finally introduced, rather confusingly they were tied back, box-net-style.




A glimpse of this set-up can be glimpsed in this haunting film from 1979.

101 Great Goals - Eder

Perhaps with 101 Great Goals in mind for the future, I posted the below on Eder in August 2012. Here it is in full again.




The Brazil side at the 1982 World Cup is historically viewed as the successor to the wonderful title-winning side of 1970, so it is fitting that, since our first Iconic Goal has come to represent Brazil at the first Mexico World Cup, so our second iconic goal has come to symbolise the side 12 years later at the World Cup in Spain.

Brazil netted 15 gems at the '82 finals, the Beau Sancy among them being Eder's winner versus the Soviet Union.

The beauty of the goal is in it's simplicity, from Falcao's outrageous school-yard dummy to Eder's keepy-up and sublime half volley. It looks more like a training routine than Brazil's opening World Cup game.

How do the goal nets contribute to this goal's place in the Pantheon of Iconic Goals?

The World Cup organisers had seemingly paid little heed to the goal nets at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. Hanging green coloured nets that rendered them near invisible, and pulling them taut, the nets contributed all the aesthetic of kicking a ball against a wall in training.

Yet, while the nets soured Socrates' magnificent equaliser, scored 10 minutes earlier, the "training wall" nets amplify the ease, simplicity and Joga Bonito of Eder's winner, raising it to the status of the Iconic.

UEFA Europa League - Real Betis

If I showed you goals scored at Real Betis' Estadio Benito Villamarin, you'd recognise the hybrid box-nets instantly.





But looking back further than Spain 1982, Real Betis History of Goal Nets shows they - like Valencia in the same era - were serious A-listers in the A-frames department.

UEFA Champions League - FC Barcelona

The fourth club in this season's Group G is Barcelona.

What more to say about Barcelona's History of Goal Nets?

Previous posts have highlighted the huge, late-80's tents at Nou Camp, and identified a striking similarity between the previous A-frames and those at Sutton United.

Perhaps what's new is the longevity of those A-frames.

The same way Tito Vilanova has replaced Pep Guardiola and nothing's really changed, so Barca moved from Camp de Les Corts to the Camp Nou, and the A-frames somehow stayed the same.

Oxford Utd

Freed from the shackles of their old Manor Ground - where admittedly they had fantastic square stanchions, (then rather ordinary Continental D's ) - at Kassam Stadium in season 09/10, Oxford installed a masterclass set of Continental D's;



Might they remind you of a couple of Scotland games at the World Cup? First, versus Holland in Mendoza, Argentina


And versus Brazil in Seville, Spain


(they're not Continental D supports, but they look just as marvellous)