The Wembley pitch

[strings]

Re the pitch - Wembley is supposed to be hosting the 2011 Champions League final. That could prove to be a total embarrassment if its still in this kind of state.

No doubt the FA will have an NFL match and a Monster Truck rally planned in the weeks leading up to it.

I'm with Easy on this. The pitch has been relaid several times and is still rubbish. Will it take a club attempting to sue the FA over an injury caused by the pitch before anything is done?

The FA need to build a gap into Wembley's diary and not just re-lay the pitch, but totally rebuild it. Maybe even get some of that 'reinforced natural grass' Desso Grassmater stuff going on or whatever the latest soccerball pitch trend is. Something needs to be done.

I just wonder if the design of the stadium contributes to the state of the pitch - there is very little translucent roofing allowing sunlight, and no way of wind passing over the surface (a la the Emirates Stadium), both of which we are told are very important for decent grass.

 

[Superphil]

Re the pitch - Wembley is supposed to be hosting the 2011 Champions League final. That could prove to be a total embarrassment if its still in this kind of state..

Nah, it should have grown a bit by then

 

[Rookie]

Wembley is a shocking pitch because in a desperate attempt to get their money back the FA let anything and everything go on there so the grass is never going to be in a good state.

As for blades personally I find them horrible and slip and slide all over the place, studs are much better. Whether Dawson was wearing them though...

 

[BensGrandad]

Wembley is a shocking pitch because in a desperate attempt to get their money back the FA let anything and everything go on there so the grass is never going to be in a good state.

Is Wembley Stadium actually owned by the FA and do they have sole durisdiction over who uses it and when it is used.

 

[Easy 10]

Nah, it should have grown a bit by then

Not if they keep doing this

 

[Easy 10]

Is Wembley Stadium actually owned by the FA and do they have sole durisdiction over who uses it and when it is used.

Yes.
And yes.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

Pay arsenal a mini-fortune to borrow their legendary groundsmen/women to
come in and SORT IT.

Highbury + emirates = two best footballing surfaces seen in England.

 

[Easy 10]

Pay arsenal a mini-fortune to borrow their legendary groundsmen/women to
come in and SORT IT.

Highbury + emirates = two best footballing surfaces seen in England.

It wouldn't make a blind bit of difference.
All the while the FA are hawking Wembley around to all and sundry for every kind of event imaginable, as well as hosting as many soccerball events as possible, the pitch will ALWAYS be f***ed.

If they kept it JUST as a football stadium, with perhaps the odd concert in the summer, then it wouldn't be a problem. But that pitch will always be a joke, because the FA are up to their eyeballs in debt still trying to pay for the damn stadium. They've got the International Spud-Growing Gala there next month.

 

[Rookie]

Pay arsenal a mini-fortune to borrow their legendary groundsmen/women to
come in and SORT IT.

Highbury + emirates = two best footballing surfaces seen in England.

Old Wembley was the pitch in the country and they used to only have the odd event bar football there. Coincidence?

 

[Badger]

They can stop hosting this nonsense there for a start

 

[Easy 10]

I mean seriously, would any other national football association allow the stadium for their national team to be used for the likes of this ? Capello must be pulling his hair out at the buffoons running the game in this country.

 

[1066familyman]

I mean seriously, would any other national football association allow the stadium for their national team to be used for the likes of this ? Capello must be pulling his hair out at the buffoons running the game in this country.

That picture is just INCREDIBLE !

What is actually going on there ? Are those roads laid on top of the turf, or are they dug out so to speak ?

Bloody hell ! I don't even know where to begin with the questions, it all looks so pitiful.

 

[Easy 10]

That picture is just INCREDIBLE !

What is actually going on there ? Are those roads laid on top of the turf, or are they dug out so to speak ?

Bloody hell ! I don't even know where to begin with the questions, it all looks so pitiful.

It was the 'Race of Champions' event in December 2007. I think they laid a tarmac track over the top of the entire pitch (ie the grass there isn't Wembley turf as such, its laid on top as part of the track).

As ideas go for the national football stadium, that one certainly was a doozy.

 

[1066familyman]

It was the 'Race of Champions' event in December 2007. I think they laid a tarmac track over the top of the entire pitch (ie the grass there isn't Wembley turf as such, its laid on top as part of the track).

As ideas go for the national football stadium, that one certainly was a doozy.

Yep, as ideas go it's certainly a

Hang on a minute, who did you say, further up the thread, owns and runs Wembley ?..............oh yeah, I remember now

 

[Bozza]

What was/is actually wrong with the pitch to make it so slippy?

 

[strings]

What was/is actually wrong with the pitch to make it so slippy?

They were watering it for hours before the start of the match. Allegedly. Why do groundsmen do this?

Wolves do the same (not allegedly - I've seen it with my eyes) - they must have dumped half of Wolverhampton's water supply on their pitch before playing Stoke on Sunday.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Its not 'slippy'. The turf is just falling apart. Someone goes to turn at speed, plants their foot, and the little bit of grass they've stood on comes loose.

 

[jordanseagull]

We can clone an animal, create the LHC, send people into space, send a digital message to australia in 1 second, but we can't make a f***ing FOOTBALL PITCH.

 

[Icy Gull]

He can go in my view.

Im sick of his excuses.

Love it, he's taken you as high as you are ever likely to get and you want shot of him

 

[Marc]

as a Groundsman I've been following this with interest, here are my points of view on the matter:

1) They should've installed a roilling pitch that can stay outside of the stadium when Concerts/Car Racing etc are on. If cost/space was a problem then thats their own fault!

2) after sacking the last head groundsman as a Scapegoat they only offered £50,000p/a for a new one....sorry but it should be at least double that!

3) Wilkins said they watered the pitch before saturdays game and the water laid on the surface due to the ground underneath being dry (hard) due to the recent weather...so therefore a) the Drainage sucks and b) why water it again before Sundays match?!?! very odd!

4) something obviously changed drastically from the Old Wembley pitch, for as far as I can recall that was always a heaven to play on and they still had concerts back then.

Personally and without knowing the full facts I believe the construction (rootzone, soil, base layer and all that) is wrong and all that needs a rip out and re-do. Simply changing the top layer of Turf every 10 months wont solve anything apart from ripping out the bank balance!