A committee on goalpost safety was established by the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) today in a bid to prevent serious injury and death.
Four Irish children have died in the last eight years in accidents involving unsafe goalposts.
The committee will prepare recommendations to ensure all permanent and portable goalposts meet strict safety guidelines. It will also investigate the need for a code of practice for goalpost maintenance.
Appeals were made last year to introduce a law ensuring all goalposts are pinned down.
This followed the death of a 10-year-old Limerick boy who died when a goalpost fell on him at a summer soccer camp. A target net was attached to the portable goal being used by the child.
It caught a gust of wind and the goalposts overturned, hitting the boy on the head.
A survey by the State Claims Agency of community and comprehensive schools in May 2003 concluded that poorly designed, manufactured or installed goal frames was resulting in unsafe equipment.
NSAI chairman Mr Dan Tierney said today that a National Standard would "contribute to an environment of greater safety on Ireland's sports fields".
In 2003, another 10-year-old boy died on a football pitch in Navan, Co Meath. He was standing next to the goal during a match when the crossbar collapsed and struck him on the head.
A 13-year-old Donegal boy died in 1998 when portable metal goalposts fell on him during a kick-about with friends; in 1997, a seven-year-old Co Antrim boy died after a set of steel goalposts he was erecting came down on him.