Swiss World Cup game delayed due to wrong-sized goalposts

St. Gallen (Switzerland) (AFP) – Kick-off in Switzerland’s World Cup qualifier against Lithuania was delayed by 15 minutes on Sunday because one of the goals was too big.

Ground staff at the Kybunpark Stadium worked feverishly to replace the goalposts which some media reports claimed were between five and 10cm too high on one side when inspected by match officials pre-match.

One report said the imbalance was caused by the lefthand post not being sunk correctly into the ground.

Even a police officer was called in to help remove the outsized posts which were eventually replaced by a spare set which matched requirements.

Switzerland went on to win the game 1-0 thanks to a goal from Xherdan Shaqiri after just two minutes.