FIFA UPDATE
The Women’s World Cup Final pitch at Olympique Lyonnais - seventeen days after a new PlayMaster surface was laid
try and cover all the bases. The inspections had also revealed that many of the training sites did not have any pedestrian mowing equipment. We’ve learned from this and, going forward, the readiness tour will take place one month out to allow more time for late corrections to be carried out.” On this occasion, to give the grounds teams the tools they needed, Alan asked iTurf to run a tender for the procurement of 37 pedestrian mowers. The successful bid came from Dennis, due in part to their established dealer network in France, and the 37 Premiers were duly built and delivered in time for the finals. The tournament process can often highlight issues, like those of the pedestrian mowers, but others come more unexpectedly. The final phase of the Women’s World Cup was played in Lyon. The venue was selected as it is home to French and European Women’s Champions Lyon and is a hotbed for Women’s football in France. This decision proved to be a good one as both semi-finals and final were played in front of capacity crowds, but one thing FIFA had not planned on was the Groupama Arena holding three concerts ahead of the finals. During discussions with the venue in the early part of the year, there had been no mention of concerts. A valuable lesson was learned by Alan here as FIFA had only
stated in their contract an exclusivity period of 10 days. This left a window of three weeks at the end of the French league season which the club duly took advantage off. Two nights of Ed Sheeran and one night with Phil Collins meant the pitch that had played well all season had to be replaced.
This left seventeen days to lay a new pitch and grow it in. Alan explained: “From our side, I had to make sure the stadium picked a good system that would remain stable under play. I had already looked at stitching a natural turf, but the stadium wanted something more flexible to fit their business model. After discussions, they opted for PlayMaster.”
“With such a short timeframe, we had to
make sure everything went right. We provided a pitch venue manager to work closely with the Lyon stadium team to ensure everything was set for the turf arriving from Milan.” “Happily, everything went well, and the pitch played well. As well as being able to take the effects of the two semi-finals and the final, the pitch also had to take the rehearsals for the awards ceremony and closing flag ceremony. To help its cause, rehearsals were carefully scheduled to reduce foot traffic and any potential damage.”
Having stadia from the French Ligue 1 for SPPS - World Class Ground Care
Ultra low ground pressure
echneat PC October/November 2019 47
the finals was a big help for the FIFA team. They were already well equipped and staffed, allowing the necessary funding to be invested in the training sites. Several had already had significant tournament experience from the 2016 Euro finals held in France. The 52-game programme was well delivered, and feedback from teams has been starkly different from the 2015 finals in Canada. Poland and France have been the first two tournaments for Alan and have been instrumental in forming what a tournament delivery will look like going forward. After detailed debriefings sessions in Zurich, the lessons learned, and corrections made have already been applied for the U17s World Cup, which takes place throughout October and November in Brazil.
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