When Phil Sharples was asked to manage a contract to build grass football pitches in Azerbaijan, little did he know of the challenges that lay ahead. Now appointed as Stadium & Surfaces Director at Gabala FC, he talks about life in the former Eastern Bloc country
Go east young man...
E
arly 2010 started a normal enough year for me, little did I know what late 2010 and now 2011 had in store! To be the one and only professionally
qualified groundsman in a country, in this day and age, is a rare thing! October 2010 saw me flying out to Azerbaijan, after many meetings with Dave Saltman (MD of Pitchcare), as he had secured a contract to manage the grounds at Gabala FC. It was then that I began to start work, initially on a one year contractual basis, as the pitches manager for the club. Some of you may already be familiar with the name Gabala FC, as it has been covered and discussed in the UK press after Tony Adams took over the reigns as the team manager back in early 2010.
The brief seemed simple enough; go and manage the training and, soon to be, stadium pitches for a Premiership Soccer Club in Azerbaijan - Gabala FC,
and train Azeri national staff in the fine art of sports pitch management. With over twenty-two years experience in sports pitch management and golf course management, including nine years experience teaching Turfgrass Science in the UK, the challenge was perfect for me.
The club’s facilities (to date) include five natural grass, full size soccer pitches; one full size 3G artificial; two small training 3G surfaces; one half size fully sealed and covered ‘air dome’ all weather 3G surface and, as I write (June 2011), we are in the final stages of finishing another one of two new natural pitches we are building this year. All surfaces on site are relatively new, with construction of the site and training facilities only beginning in early 2010. We will have three stadiums at the club, one seating around 2,000, one seating around 5,000 and the final, and biggest, seating around 15,000. The
second stadium (Academy) will be completed by December of this year, and the largest stadium by summer 2012. The last two pitches built will have undersoil heating systems installed. Initially, I came out to manage the surfaces only, but it was not long before I was in charge of the entire site. I now manage the club’s entire infrastructure here in Gabala, from the existing stadium (that is currently being revamped) to the new build stadiums and all surfaces and services. I manage match days, security, personnel; in fact, everything to do with the grounds, stadium and the facility. I have fifteen staff (four for the pitches) and oversee all contractors visiting the site and the workforces they bring. All natural surfaces are suspended water table construction with drains at 5m spacing, 150mm gravel raft, 200mm sand base and 100mm top layer (mixed with 10% peat); there is no blinding
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