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Should We Ban Moveable Soccer Goals?

A recent tragedy raises questions about soccer net safety in Canada. Is the solution inflatable?

Katie Hyslop 9 Aug 2012TheTyee.ca

Katie Hyslop reports on youth and education issues for The Tyee Solutions Society.

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The five-year old recently killed by a toppled collapsible soccer goal in the Yukon is one of many such tragedies across North America. Photo: Shutterstock.

Of all the sports parents fear their children wanting to play, soccer has got to be way down on the list. From concussions in hockey to cauliflower ear in rugby, the risks from soccer seem mild in comparison.

But accidents happen and tragedy has struck on the soccer field. One of the main culprits in soccer-related injuries and death is a key tool in the game: the goal. A recent accident in the Yukon Territory where a young girl was killed has sparked a call for a Canada-wide law that would see nets firmly anchored in place and moveable nets banned.

Soccer enthusiasts in British Columbia, however, say although the incident was tragic, the risks don’t justify an all-out ban.

"I struggle with [the idea]," says Bjorn Osieck, executive director of BC Soccer. "It seems to be just one alternative. If we start banning this, we'll have to start banning a whole lot of things."

Petition to ban moveable nets

On July 4, five-year-old Jaedyn Amann-Hicks was playing soccer with friends in Watson Lake, Yukon, when a friend leaned against the collapsible soccer net. The net fell down, Striking Amann-Hicks in the back of the head. She was rushed to hospital but died hours later from her injuries.

Amann-Hicks' family, who split their time between Watson Lake, Yukon, and Cedar, B.C., have since called on the Canadian government to ban collapsible and mobile soccer nets across the country and to securely anchor the stable ones. An online petition in favour of the ban has garnered 5,369 signatures as of Aug. 7.

This isn't the first time an incident like this has occurred. According to AnchoredforSafety.org there have been 38 deaths and 56 injuries from soccer nets in North America since 1979. An initiative of the Zachary Tran Memorial Fund remembering six-year-old Zachary Tran who was also killed by a falling net in 2003, Anchoredforsafety.org focuses mainly on incidents in the U.S. and acknowledges there could be many more injuries and deaths they don't know about.

Similar laws already exist in Wisconsin, Arkansas, and most recently in Illinois that didn't go so far as to ban moveable nets, but did require they either be weighed down, securely anchored or be "tip resistant" models.

Goal guidelines, not rules

The Yukon Department of Education has responded to Amann-Hicks' death by recalling all moveable soccer nets in the territory for a safety check. But the B.C. government isn't following suit just yet: "Our Ministry will give consideration to the petition regarding Jaedyn's Law," reads a statement from the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development emailed to The Tyee.

"Any changes moving forward would need to be made in consultation with partners, including BC Soccer, the Canadian Safety Association and potentially other provincial ministries."

The BC Soccer Association, which represents all organized players in the province, has a set of guidelines for goal post safety. Posted online almost two years ago, the guidelines include anchoring moveable goal posts with chains or weights, removing them from the field when not being used, and not allowing children or adults to swing from or climb the goals.

But these regulations aren't enforced. Osieck says they were posted to try and bring a unified set of rules to the game across the province, but that most of the regulations are "common sense."

"Thousands of goals [in B.C.] fall into that category," he estimates, and replacing them would mean a great cost to the government and to private field owners. If new nets aren't affordable, that means less places to play soccer.

One possible solution is inflatable goals like the iGoal, which Osieck says are already in use by some schools for safety reasons. At a cost of $500, inflatable goals for 11-16 year olds weigh just under 40 pounds when inflated, whereas a comparably-sized moveable goal can weigh more than three times that and cost over $3,000. Switching to inflatable models could save lives and money.

Find a solution, not a ban: Anton

Former Vancouver city councilor and past president of the Kerrisdale Soccer Club Suzanne Anton says she cannot imagine what it would be like to have a child injured or killed by a net. "Soccer in the community of Vancouver is about building wellness and building community, and to have a child injured or killed from soccer posts is just unimaginably horrible," she says.

But she doesn't think a ban on moveable nets is necessarily the answer, either. Especially in Vancouver, where many of the city's fields are used for more than soccer games.

"Most of our fields are multi-use. So they might have field hockey one day and soccer the next, football the next," she says. "I think the people in BC Soccer and insurance companies and so on will be putting their heads together to come up with some solutions. I would certainly not want to say they should just be banned because there may be other solutions that work equally well."

The Vancouver Park Board says moveable nets are used on all nine of the city's artificial turf fields and on 20 of the grass fields, which are used for soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey. The other 56 sites have anchored permanent nets, which are removed at the end of the playing season. All nets must meet National Federation of State High School Association, Fédération Internationale de Football Association, and National Collegiate Athletic Association standards.

Although each net, moveable and permanent, is inspected twice a year, the Park Board is looking into increasing safety measures in light of Amann-Hicks' death.

"We have asked our staff to assess our entire inventory and see what more might be done to improve safety. [For example] we are investigating sticker signage [like] 'do not hang on the goal posts' as an additional precautionary measure for portable units," reads an email sent by the Park Board to The Tyee.

"We have contacted sports groups that use our play fields via Vancouver Field Sports Federation to ask them to review their equipment to ensure manufacturers’ standards for proper use are met," says the email.

A father of small children himself, Osieck says he can't imagine what parents must go through when their children are hurt or killed by soccer nets. But he says we need to weigh the risks against the benefits before we consider an all out ban.

"When you look at banning scenarios, how many kids are killed by cars?" he asks. "If something is used improperly, there's always evidence of risk."  [Tyee]

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