Artificial Surfaces
Artificial, fake, false, synthetic, mock, copied, unreal, imitation, man- made, phoney, unnatural.
The Oxford English dictionary definition for artificial; made as a copy of something natural.
Do you want bionic legs that run faster than anyone else, or would you want your own natural legs that can be trained to run faster than anyone else?
Is anything that is ever a copy of something natural better than the original?
Can natural things even be compared to their artificial counterparts or, should I say, counterfeits?
Matt Frost enters the ‘artificial‘ debate
Life is short,
FAKE IT! T
here are not many industries left in the world that Britain can claim to challenge for top slot and, along with the USA and Australia, these three
Anglophones are way above their nearest rivals for producing natural sports surfaces. Call them what you like, first to arrive at work and last to go home, groundsmen, greenkeepers and, nowadays, agronomist or sports turf managers as they like to be referred to, have come a long way. How many other professions can you think of where, amongst other things, in one day you have to perform the duty of biologist, chemist, mechanic, surveyor, labourer, liaison, weatherman, computer technician, people manager, and machine operator, whilst displaying an absolute understanding of health and safety laws and having your work scrutinised by millions of people on TV - all of whom consider themselves to be experts because they have a 30m2 patch of weeds and moss outside their home, commonly referred to as a lawn? Not to mention having to please your end users ‘the players’ who, in general, take home a larger salary in one week than the average groundsman does in one year. British stadium football pitches are the envy of the world and are
unrecognisable from fifteen years ago. Now, even in the depths of December and January, we see minimal wear and clean football shirts at the end of most matches, and this despite stadiums rising to the heights of small skyscrapers. Certainly, aesthetics aside, football can actually be played year round on the ground, with the only real excuse left for players being their own ineptitude. This is all the more remarkable as the ruling body of the sport have constantly turned their backs on the surface we all know and love. They have invested millions of pounds in the development of plastic pitches and other aspects of the game, yet not one penny on the improvement of natural surfaces in the entire history of their existence.
So, what made FIFA decide to
promote artificial pitches again after their infamous and highly criticised entry into the professional game back in the 1980s? There are players who swear their careers were curtailed because they played for those teams on ‘those pitches’ for a couple of seasons, and I should know. I worked with one for six years! QPR and Luton will always be synonymous with the most unforgiving professional football surfaces in living memory! Well, having said that, just like
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