Your guide to buying and replacing football equipment

Looking for brand new football equipment for your school or sports centre?

Keen to replace your old, tired equipment in time for the new season, but no idea where to start?

Take your football training facilities to the next level with advice from the experienced team here at Universal Services. We’ve put together a basic football equipment buying guide which will help you choose which equipment and accessories you need to purchase for your training sessions, small-sided game play, or full game play.

Kitting out your pitch: the basics

Football goals

First, you’ll need to decide whether you want to opt for fixed or portable football goals.

Our socketed round steel football goal posts are the most heavy-duty choice in our range. These are ideal for sites where football games are a permanent fixture. Though they might be slightly more expensive, their aluminium socketed counterparts are more lightweight and easier to move.

We also offer portable, free-standing steel and aluminium football goals for sites that need more flexibility. For a completely versatile solution that will open up even more opportunities at your school or club, take a look at our combination football/rugby goals.

Our football goals are available with a range of nets, the quality of these varies from amateur to professional to a World Cup standard, junior sizes are also available.

Adult (15+) 11-a-side games require goals that are 24ft (7.3m) and 8ft (2.4m) high. For players under 15 we offer a range of goals that will be a better fit; we stock plenty of these to accommodate your younger end users. Please see our football goal chart for the recommended goal sizes based on age and number of players.

Please note that all adult football goals available from Universal Services have been independently tested to BS EN 748.

Football nets

Our knotless nets have no joins between the mesh, resulting in higher impact resistance. Our two-colour knotless nets are available in both continental and box styles, and our single colour nets can be purchased in continental style only. We also stock a series of football net pegs and straps for different goal configurations.

Balls

Let’s dive into our accessories range, starting with the football itself. We stock the Mitre Impel, easily one of the most popular balls for training purposes. It’s built for exceptional control and features a 30-panel construction to ensure a high performance during even the most intense training sessions. For easy storage and transportation, we would recommend investing in our mesh ball carry bags. Be sure to grab a stirrup pump and needle, which makes light work of inflating large numbers of balls during training.

Flags and markers

From flags, corner poles and bases to spring loaded safety corner poles and turf anchors, we provide all the football flags and markers you need to create a compliant pitch.

Pitch protection

Our counter-balance weights are perfect for ensuring your goals stay in position at all times if pegging them down is not an option. We also stock the components for crowd control barriers (high upright posts, white plastic chains, and accompanying turf screws).

Divider systems

Stop balls from going out of play with our football perimeter protection system, which is a useful addition to any pitch or training ground environment that requires a ball stop boundary. Take a look at our synthetic pitch divider system for a similar product that can be safely used on artificial pitches.

Don’t forget…

You may need a purpose-built scoreboard onsite, too. We offer scoreboards in two specifications, both of which are suitable for both football and rugby games.


5, 7 or 9 a side options

We also stock a range of goals for all ages or if you want to open up your football facilities to smaller groups, you may want to consider purchasing equipment that supports 5, 7 or 9 a side teams. We supply a great range of smaller and more specialised football goals, all of which can be viewed in our Football section, please see our football goal chart for the recommended goal sizes based on age and number of players.


Specialist training equipment

A must for any facility that’s serious about its football training capabilities, our Crazy Catch upstart double trouble rebound net is a fantastic reaction trainer with two sides: one for more controlled rebounds, and one for more unpredictable returns. It’s an excellent tool for improving your players’ movement and coordination and is regularly used by top Premiership clubs. Training football goals are also a must for target practice.

Please note that all the football equipment mentioned here is suitable for outside use. If you are searching for items for an indoor setup, we also stock a range of indoor football products, including 5-a-side football goals, goal mats, and goal anchorage sets. You’ll also find plenty of futsal equipment on our website, which is suitable for the FIFA-recognised form of small-sided indoor football.

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  Published on 31 July 2023 By Andreas Fantousi



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