It has been a long time since football burst into force in England (the date of 1869 is accepted for the formation of the English Federation, the FA), place of its creation and where it became a mass sport in a few years. Although the two vertical posts that marked where the ball had to enter to claim the goal were implemented from the beginning, other developments still took a while to be put into operation, such as the crossbar that gave the final shape to what we now call the goal. and which was introduced in 1882.
Little by little the game has evolved and today it is a sport that has technology then unimaginable, such as WAS, and very different rules, such as cards, penalties or the number of changes. However, some inventions from his early years endure, as do the controversies, one of the engines that has constantly driven innovation to the so-called beautiful sport. From one of the most recurrent in the early years arose in Liverpool a very simple invention, but one that changed football forever to the point that it has not yet been able to be improved. Such ingenuity is so basic to the game that even today the referees check before each game that they are correctly placed: we are talking about the goal nets.
How were the goal nets devised?
The origin of the goal nets is caused by a controversy in a football match held on October 26, 1889 between the Everton and the Accrington. During the match, held at Anfield (home of the Toffees until they moved to Goodison Park in 1892 due to disagreements with the owner of the land), one of the local players shot tight on goal. The ball was lost in the back and while the local public celebrated the goal, the referee believed that the ball had not entered. One of the Everton fans that day was a 31-year-old civil engineer named John Alexander Brodie. That day, with the final 2-2, he decided to get down to work to put an end to this type of controversy about whether the ball had gone in or not, then very common.
Image of John Alexander Brodie, inventor of soccer goal nets.
The engineer devised to put, according to his own words, a “pocket that can catch the ball when it passes through the goal”, so that everyone would know immediately if the ball had entered or not (except, indeed, when vote the ball inside and it ends up going outside). He tried it on Stanley Park of Liverpool and the result was so good that in November of that same year Brodie had already filed the patent. This was accepted on November 27 of a year later as ‘nets for soccer goals and other games’.
First football game with nets in the goal
Shortly afterwards Brodie convinced members of the FA to give it a try. It was January 12, 1891 when the English football institution organized an ‘All Star’ style match between a team from the North and one from the South of England. The match was played at the Town Ground of Nottingham and the first goal was scored, to the joy of the inventor, by the Everton striker Fred Geary. He was the first player to send the ball “into the back of the net”.
In March 1891, the first official game in history with goal nets was played. It was in the final of the FA Cup held at the Oval in London between the Blackburn Rovers and the Notts County (3-1). Nets became mandatory for all league matches from September 1891 and for FA Cup matches in 1894. And since then, to the present day.
Illustration of the 1891 FA Cup Final match in which goal nets were first officially used. Even such a ‘simple’ invention has evolved.
The inventor
John Alexander Brodie, a reputable engineer who lived in Bilbao
John Alexander Brodie (1858 – 1934) nation in Bridgnorth (Inglaterra) and was an arduous practitioner of Rugby and Golf. After several years of training as an engineer, he worked briefly at the Liverpool Department of Civil Engineering before moving to work Bilbao, where he participated in several projects in the port. In 1884 he returned to England and directed numerous infrastructures, such as the first motorway between two cities in the United Kingdom, the electric tram network and the first ’round’ of the city. His most recognized work was the mersey tunnelwhich passes under the river of the same name between the city of Liverpool y Birkenhead. At the time (for 24 years) it was the longest submerged road tunnel in the world. One of the avenues in Liverpool bears his name and also a pub. Despite all his achievements, Brodie assured that the greatest were the soccer goal nets.
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