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Artificial Pitches. . . .Need to go!


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20 hours ago, JTS98 said:

I started skimming it when I realised it was purely about the aesthetic. 
 

Summary: people don’t like the look of artificial pitches and “There is little scientific data to suggest that players are more prone to injury on artificial pitches...”.

I liked “the kind of leagues MLS wants to one day count itself among, don’t play on bad grass pitches. They play on green carpets, commonly of a natural and synthetic consistency.”

We need more research on surface performance. I think we can be more sophisticated than the aesthetic.

Edited by crispy
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  • 2 years later...

Artificial turf disallowed in the Eredivisie starting 2025


Artificial turf will disappear from the premier league for good. From season 2025/2026, clubs playing at the highest level will be obliged to play on natural grass. A final decision on this will follow on 1 December.


As of the 2025/2026 season, no stadium in the premier league will have artificial grass. The transformation is an express wish of the majority of premier league clubs. With the definitive banning of the 'fake mats', the Netherlands is considered more likely to structurally rank among the top six in Europe. The premier league clubs want the latter. That way, more tickets for international competitions can be distributed in our country. Read also


The 18 premier league clubs recently received a memo from the Eredivisie CV, raising the question of how a ban on playing on artificial grass is viewed. If 5/6 of the clubs vote to ban artificial grass, the premier league clubs will be obliged to play their matches on natural grass from season 2025/2026. That vote, which takes place on 1 December, is a formality. Almost unanimously there is a preference for football on real grass.


There has been annoyance about artificial grass in the premier league for much longer. As recently as 2017, this newspaper was at the forefront of banning the plastic surface in stadiums. A hundred leading figures - national team coaches, former players, trainers, internationals, captains - backed an urgent appeal to all clubs, the Eredivisie CV and the KNVB to ban artificial grass in the top professional league. But a ban on artificial grass never proved feasible, noting that clubs did receive an incentive from European funds if they started playing on real grass. So now that ban is imminent.



 

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Who do artificial pitches need to go? They promote participation. Some utter jobber of a club who are only interested in staying the Scottish Premiership have no right to tell a large cohort of kids to f**k off and stop playing football simply because they (the club) are shitebags who need someone/something to blame over not winning a game(s).

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This weirdo grasswanker lobby really radiates bad divorce energy.

Lots of tearful middle aged baldies making false promises to disinterested teenagers about taking them to Alton Towers when Livingston and Kilmarnock are finally expelled from the top flight.

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Look, all of you who are programmed to automatically defend artificial pitches because your clubs have them, I get it.

And as for the ‘but won’t someone think of the children’ winey post a couple above, floodlit artificial pitches have been a brilliant introduction into our communities for youngsters to train and play on. One of the most important factors over the past 20-30 years since they first appeared.

But that’s a completely separate issue to the playing surfaces used in our top league. I get that they’re cost effective and that’s where we are in our national game, but I’ve lost count of the number of matches I’ve seen Saints play on astroturf, winning and losing, and it’s a completely different game. 

The expensive hybrid pitches are different, they seem to be a really good surface.

If the types of artificial pitches like the ones we have in our top league are so good, and as good as grass pitches, then why do so few of the top teams in the world have them?  Why do most professional players and managers not like them?  I personally don’t enjoy matches played on them as much, and I know many folk who feel the same way.

But they’re here to stay in Scotland so that’s the way it is, hopefully as the technology improves, we will see better artificial pitches over the next few years.

 

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24 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:

Look, all of you who are programmed to automatically defend artificial pitches because your clubs have them, I get it.

And as for the ‘but won’t someone think of the children’ winey post a couple above, floodlit artificial pitches have been a brilliant introduction into our communities for youngsters to train and play on. One of the most important factors over the past 20-30 years since they first appeared.

But that’s a completely separate issue to the playing surfaces used in our top league. I get that they’re cost effective and that’s where we are in our national game, but I’ve lost count of the number of matches I’ve seen Saints play on astroturf, winning and losing, and it’s a completely different game. 

The expensive hybrid pitches are different, they seem to be a really good surface.

If the types of artificial pitches like the ones we have in our top league are so good, and as good as grass pitches, then why do so few of the top teams in the world have them?  Why do most professional players and managers not like them?  I personally don’t enjoy matches played on them as much, and I know many folk who feel the same way.

But they’re here to stay in Scotland so that’s the way it is, hopefully as the technology improves, we will see better artificial pitches over the next few years.

 

Any pros or coaches I've ever asked about this have all said basically the same thing. Players don't like them, and it's 100% a factor in match preparation when you're away to a team that has one. But if you play for a team that has one, you need to pretend the surface is fine, even though basically none of them really think that. Younger players have grown up using them, but generally still prefer a grass surface.

Two players I know who played for the same EFL club said their team only used their artificial pitch (at the training ground) to train on when absolutely necessary due to weather etc. It was basically only used by kids teams, as a succession of managers chose to keep the players off it. Why would they use it when they never played matches on them and it's not the same as playing on grass?

Fans of teams who have them will always defend them, and players and coaches of teams who have them have no choice but to defend them in public. But I don't think there's any doubt that players see them as different to a grass pitch.

There's a reason it's only clubs at a certain level that have them. Maybe in the future that will change as technology improves, but for now, that's it.

* This is where a Livi or Killie fan turns up and makes the false equivalence argument that not all grass pitches are the same. It's not the zinger they think it is.

Edited by VincentGuerin
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Look, all of you who are programmed to automatically defend artificial pitches because your clubs have them, I get it.
And as for the ‘but won’t someone think of the children’ winey post a couple above, floodlit artificial pitches have been a brilliant introduction into our communities for youngsters to train and play on. One of the most important factors over the past 20-30 years since they first appeared.
But that’s a completely separate issue to the playing surfaces used in our top league. I get that they’re cost effective and that’s where we are in our national game, but I’ve lost count of the number of matches I’ve seen Saints play on astroturf, winning and losing, and it’s a completely different game. 
The expensive hybrid pitches are different, they seem to be a really good surface.
If the types of artificial pitches like the ones we have in our top league are so good, and as good as grass pitches, then why do so few of the top teams in the world have them?  Why do most professional players and managers not like them?  I personally don’t enjoy matches played on them as much, and I know many folk who feel the same way.
But they’re here to stay in Scotland so that’s the way it is, hopefully as the technology improves, we will see better artificial pitches over the next few years.
 
I'll defend artificial pitches because of the advantages they bring like being able to train on the pitch, easier to maintain, being able to hire out the pitch, less games affected by the weather and it's always the same condition regardless of time of year. Would I prefer Livi to have a pristine grass pitch? Of course
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54 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:

The expensive hybrid pitches are different, they seem to be a really good surface.

In fairness the hybrid pitches are only something like 5% synthetic fibre so they're a completely different thing compared to "artificial" pitches.

The photos and videos Burrows put up in a Twitter thread around the stitching process during the summer when ours was getting done show how wildly different they are to the sort of surface you see at Livi.

Edited by capt_oats
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9 minutes ago, Cptn Hooch said:
53 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:
Look, all of you who are programmed to automatically defend artificial pitches because your clubs have them, I get it.
And as for the ‘but won’t someone think of the children’ winey post a couple above, floodlit artificial pitches have been a brilliant introduction into our communities for youngsters to train and play on. One of the most important factors over the past 20-30 years since they first appeared.
But that’s a completely separate issue to the playing surfaces used in our top league. I get that they’re cost effective and that’s where we are in our national game, but I’ve lost count of the number of matches I’ve seen Saints play on astroturf, winning and losing, and it’s a completely different game. 
The expensive hybrid pitches are different, they seem to be a really good surface.
If the types of artificial pitches like the ones we have in our top league are so good, and as good as grass pitches, then why do so few of the top teams in the world have them?  Why do most professional players and managers not like them?  I personally don’t enjoy matches played on them as much, and I know many folk who feel the same way.
But they’re here to stay in Scotland so that’s the way it is, hopefully as the technology improves, we will see better artificial pitches over the next few years.
 

I'll defend artificial pitches because of the advantages they bring like being able to train on the pitch, easier to maintain, being able to hire out the pitch, less games affected by the weather and it's always the same condition regardless of time of year. Would I prefer Livi to have a pristine grass pitch? Of course

Yes, I don’t disagree with any of that.

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On 11/04/2020 at 00:42, ancientnoise said:

Our grass pitch lasted well over 100 years and was always considered one of the best grass pitches in the country. And face it, if you can't grow anything in Ayrshire soil, you're a buffoon.

We now have an poor emulation of that, and people are right to complain.

 

 

It was shite for years before the artificial pitch went down. Was never the same post stadium refurb/under soil heating.

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