Industry
As a Premier League Manager said to me, why would anyone want to play on something only trying to emulate real grass?
The simple maintenance cost analysis in
the table provides the strongest argument for retaining natural turf, before anybody embarks on the environmental and health issues that continue to blot the artificial copybook. The concerns over the use of recycled car tyres as 3G infill being carcinogenic, continue. On the flip side, natural turf takes in carbon dioxide during its respiration process to provide oxygen back to the atmosphere; another tick for the ‘green’ box. Interestingly, a recent survey undertaken by Labosport on behalf of the FA and looking at 229 of the current artificial installations showed that 46% of the pitches tested failed
their FIFA 2 Star rating. Reasons for failure included problems with shock absorption, poor ball roll, undulations, ripped seams and worn areas. The fact remains that, from a financial
point of view, if funding is ring fenced purely for the renovation and maintenance of this country’s sports fields, playing football for your local team at the weekend would be a healthy, fun and very affordable pastime throughout the playing season. Despite the Football League Chairmen’s
recent split vote on allowing 3G surfaces into the three leagues, this is only a temporary reprieve, and it is likely that the next vote will see the balance tipped in favour of 3G.
” The PFA insist that the players actually
don’t want to play on artificial surfaces. Every professional player that I’ve worked and spoken with for the past twenty-five years has been against artificial surfaces. As a Premier League Manager said to me, why would anyone want to play on something only trying to emulate real grass? The reality is that English football can
accommodate twice as many games, on good quality natural grass, played traditionally at the weekend, for a fraction of the cost of Greg Dyke’s proposal. Surely it makes good commercial sense to revisit this and increase the pool of potentially world beating players?
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