jumpers for goalposts

phrase

Informal association football as played by children, especially as a romantic or old-fashioned ideal contrasted against the commercialism and cynicism of modern professional football.

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Meanings

phrase
  1. UKInformal association football as played by children, especially as a romantic or old-fashioned ideal contrasted against the commercialism and cynicism of modern professional football.

    Fortunate to have open fields in front of her house , Paula and the boys from the estate would gather for the timeless routine of 'jumpers for goalposts', team selections, and games that only paused when mothers called them in for tea.

    2024 September 26, Gail Emms, The Lost Lionesses: The incredible story of England’s forgotten trailblazers, Hachette UK, →ISBN
    2 more examples

    There is a strong, and understandable, tendency to romanticise a jumpers-for-goalposts golden age when football pitches looked like the battlefields of Flanders, assorted firms and crews spent their Saturday evenings trashing railway carriages and multi-millionaire players, bloodsucking investors and a globalised Manchester United had yet to ruin our lives.

    2011 July 7, Anthony Clavane, Promised Land: A Northern Love Story, Random House, →ISBN, page 130

    In the next section we discuss the notion of 'jumpers for goalposts' in the United Kingdom, and how the modern notion of this, under different constraints, has emerged through activities such as cage football, mixed groups, playing against different ages, and so on.

    2021 June 27, James Rudd, Ian Renshaw, Geert Savelsbergh, Jia Yi Chow, Will Roberts, Daniel Newcombe, Keith Davids, Nonlinear Pedagogy and the Athletic Skills Model: The Importance of Play in Supporting Physical Literacy, Routledge, →ISBN, page 45

Origin

From the idea that children, in the absence of a proper pitch, will mark one using items of clothing (such as jumpers).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

jumpers for goalposts. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jumpers%20for%20goalposts

MLA

“jumpers for goalposts.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jumpers%20for%20goalposts. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “jumpers for goalposts,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jumpers%20for%20goalposts.

Source: jumpers for goalposts on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.