FSM
Features
Alan Ferguson joins F It has been announced recently that Alan Ferguson is to take on an exciting new role as Senior Pit
Richard Fry of Rigby Taylor was granted the first exclusive inter- view to talk with Alan about the position and the skills and knowledge he can bring to bear on what must be regarded as the top pitch management position in world football. Alan Ferguson’s newly created
of a learning curve and the creation of a bank of personal knowledge and experiences upon, which I can call upon to confront problems as they occur.” One of Alan’s key attri-
Richard Fry.
position is part of a restructuring to bring all aspects of the installation, main- tenance and presentation of FIFA pitch- es under FIFA management. Previously, the use of consultants and advisors, as well as machinery and materials procurement had been outsourced but these roles will now be brought ‘in-house’. The first tournament will be the FIFA Club
World Cup in the UAE in December this year. This is followed by the FIFA Men’s under 20 World Cup in Poland in the May\June which will over- lap with the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France with the final in Lyon. Alan brings a unique range of skills, experi-
ences and contacts to this job; skills that have been honed firstly as a greenkeeper, contrac- tor and groundsman. “During my working life, I have had to contend with a wide and varied range of turf management issues” he say, “And these experience, have all been part
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butes, leaving aside for the moment his obvious agro- nomic skills, is his ability to communicate at all levels, from an apprentice learning his trade to
club owners and principles of international organisations. “I have an excellent working knowledge
on most aspects of the job for which I have been appointed, and there are areas that require more detailed and specialist knowledge. While at St George’s Park and Wembley there were some challenging times but I was able to bring together like-minded ‘partners’ who I could work with and were market leaders in their respective disciplines. Many of these individuals I could call upon
at any time and I would always receive a positive response. It’s all about getting to the right people, with the right products at the right time.” He continues: “I see this approach as an
analogy to an Formula One tyre changing team where skilled and selected individuals all come together with a like minded pur-
pose to achieve a single objective. As pitch managers, we might not be changing a set of tyres in 2.5 seconds but we can adopt that common purpose of teamwork to achieve our goal.” Alan is also looking into the area of
standardisation across the different venues within his remit. He states: “Currently each of the World Cup venues could have differ- ent mowers, hybrid turf systems, nutritional programmes; even the height of mower cut could be different between stadia. To ensure a commonality of communication and pur- pose, such variation has to end. Another area of change has to in the area of new technology, which is advancing all the time and needs to be embraced.” Alan rightly identifies Qatar as providing
some major challenges but he say it also offers exciting opportunities to show what can be achieved. The dates of the World Cup itself has been moved to Qatar’s win- ter but the pitches themselves have to be grown-in during their summer. “It is likely that these surfaces, will start
life as mixtures of Bermuda and Paspalum grasses” he says “But this will change to ryegrass mixtures as we move into their cooler ‘winter’. The new tetraploid technology peren- nial ryegrass grasses in particular have
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