sunshine
Well-known member
I have no stats to back this up....(!) But I'd be willing to bet that when the dimensions of the goals were first formalised, the average male was quite a bit shorter than they are now, and probably not much different to the size of the women currently playing in goal.
It's not that women's goals need to be smaller, it's that men's need to be bigger.
Even a generation ago (think Jennings, Shilton, Clemence) 'keepers were several inches shorter with a significantly lesser wingspan.
Did some research for you:
The dimensions of the goal were defined in 1863. The crossbar is 8 foot / 2.44m.
In 1871, the average British male height was 167cm, compared to 178cm today (Men's average height 'up 11cm since 1870s' - BBC News ). Today the average female height in the UK is 164cm, so not much difference from the average male height in 1863.
I'm sure women's football will evolve and we'll see tall keepers becoming more common as the popularity / quality / rewards increase.