Football Pitches of the Future

[eufckev]

I have noticed that over the past couple of weeks, many games have been postponed due to waterlogged pitches, which have fallen on important days of the football calender.

 

When we watch tennis in the summer, if it rains they cover up the courts so they do not get too wet.

 

So why not do this for football pitches, except let some rain on to the pitch, but not too much so the pitch is unfit to play on.

[Slartibartfast]

But it was the rain during the game that made the pitch unplayable.

[eufckev]

True, but you cannot deny that the downpours before the match added to the pitch becoming unplayable.

[John Pearce]

Who's going to say what is too much rain, or not enough?

 

The weather in the UK has always had an effect on football and most other winter sports for that matter. Every season some games get postponed due to waterlogged pitches, some seasons games get postponed due to frozen pitches.Its always been like that and whilst we all live in the UK it will probably will always stay like that (unless of course Sepp Blater has his way and makes it a summer sport, or global warming has even greater affect than what is being predicted) its part of what makes football in Britain so exciting and great.

 

Start messing around with it....covering pitches, introducing sin-bins, video replays etc. etc. etc., it'll start being like grid-iron in the States and will lose its appeal to many.

 

You can't affect the weather so lets just live with it and expect the occasional game to be postponed or abandoned.

[Slartibartfast]

Originally Posted By: Quecerasaha

Start messing around with it....covering pitches, introducing sin-bins, video replays etc. etc. etc.,

Talking of sin-bins I went to the Invicta Dynamos ice hockey match yesterday, at one point Invicta had more players in the sin-bin than on the ice.

A good evenings entertainment for not much money especially for any of you who are, or have got, young boys.

[Bernard]

One thing I will say is, regardless of the quality of the pitch or the groundsman or the use of some kind of massive tarpaulin sheet to cover the pitch, games will still be called off. I point you towards the Liverpool v Arsenal Carling Cup match this year, called off because of fog. When the weather really comes in, no kind of intervention will prevent games being postponed or abandoned.

[KShep]

Making football a summer sport is worse than playing through winter. More often than not, the worst storms and downpours are in August, and pitches from June to September are usually too hard to comfortably play on anyway.

[ColtheJock]

Maybe the future then is in artificial pitches. The club I support in Scotland where I come from originally are the only legaue club in the UK I know of which has a fieldturf pitch. Since it was laid 3 years ago (it is FIFA approved) they have only had one game postponed to my knowledge and that was because of snow making entry to the ground dangerous for fans not the state of the pitch. I have seen a few games on the pitch and it plays really well and encourages passing football. I know quite a few Primiership clubs have these type of pitchs at there training grounds and quite a few NFL (american football) teams have switched to them as well. Much better than the old astroturf which we all hated. I have to add finally that I think the pitch at Stonebridge Road has held up remarkedly well this season so far.

 

:-)

[Jeff]

One of the Moscow teams has one of these I think.

It was used in the Champions League before they got knocked out. CSKA??