FOOTBALL


City of Manchester Stadium (now the Etihad Stadium) - which had a Desso constructed pitch.


In August 2008, the club was bought by the Abu Dhabi United Group and, in September 2009, Roy was asked by the club if he would go out to Abu Dhabi to oversee the Club World Cup and run a team of groundstaff which were called the Dessert group. “I was one of the first to work outside the UK in our industry, working abroad with warm-season grasses (Bermuda and Paspalum) and different fertilisers, chemicals and mowing heights, all of which I picked up very quickly. I had to learn how they worked, and the establishment was so different with temperatures hitting 40 degrees plus, which is a lot different to the cool season grasses we work with in the UK.”


Roy spent three months in Abu Dhabi, staying out for twenty-eight days each month, coming back home for a few days, and then out again due to visa requirements.


In 2009/10, the club installed a new Desso GrassMaster pitch with a fully


automated irrigation system at the Platt Lane Complex, which replaced one of the soil-based pitches. At the same time, one of the Fibresand constructed pitches had a fully automated irrigation system installed. In 2012, the club sent Roy out to Melbourne, Australia, to look at installing a new Desso GrassMaster pitch - the first in that part of Australia - for Melbourne City FC, their sister club.


“Things moved on very quickly with the new owners. We used to water both pitches at Platt Lane with a hosepipe; those were the days! I will never forget, in 2003, we had a scorching summer with temperatures hitting thirty degrees plus. Both grass pitches were dying in front of our eyes, so I made the call to the fire brigade to help us out; without their help, we would have lost both grass pitches for sure.” Planning for the new training ground started in 2008. This was to be called the City Football Academy (CFA), to be built in east Manchester right across the road from the Etihad Stadium. The work was completed in 2014. “I now oversee


seventeen staff in total; three at the Etihad Stadium and fourteen at the CFA. We have seventeen pitches; eight hybrid, six Fibresand and three full size Desso synthetic pitches (two outdoor, one indoor), and I also oversee all the landscaping.” Roy helped with the build of the new 10,000m2


sand-based pitch at the New York training complex, which began in 2016 and was completed in 2018. “I have travelled the world with the club. I have been to South Africa, China, Australia, Ghana, Abu Dhabi and the USA working at the training camps abroad. I have been fortunate. I’m a very focused and professional person in everything I do in life, so it has kept me in good stead with all the experience I have gained. You cannot buy experience, although some people think you can. That is why I have stayed at the top from day one, and still moving forward in the industry looking at making things better and moving the club forward.”


“In 2018, Manchester City were the first Premier League club to install a new full- size Hybrid Hero carpet pitch system (at


You have got to believe in yourself. Listen to what people say; if you don’t know what you’re talking about, then you just listen


Desso 3G pitch 60 PC February/March 2019


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