Aluminium in football?

A brief look back into history to start with: there was a game in China in the 3rd century B.C. which was called "tsu chu " and in which a ball was kicked with the foot. Even the ancient Romans played a type of football which remained popular up to the middle ages. However, there were practically no rules for the game. Modern football as we know it today was developed in England and spread over the whole world.

In the meantime, aluminium has come to play an important role on the periphery of the beautiful game. First the goals: while they were originally made of wood, the sections are now made of aluminium with a round cross-section.
In Germany, the collapse of a goal in a game between Borussia Moenchengladbach and Werder Bremen in 1973 has become legendary. The wooden bar fell onto a player who was almost fatally injured. This can probably no longer happen with today's aluminium goals so that the corresponding passage in the rules of the German Football Association DFB is probably superfluous: "…If the bar is displaced or breaks, the game must be stopped until it has been repaired or put back in the correct position …".

However, aluminium is not only found in the goals, but also under the soles of the players. The leather boots they wear have studs for a better grip on the playing surface, studs which can be made of rubber or aluminium.

We look forward to successful and fair European Championships 2008 in Austria / Switzerland and wish that all strikers hit as little aluminium as possible and the back of the net as often as possible.


Overview