When I wrote about 3G pitches last September (see http://rulesfoolsandwisemen.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/3g-or-not-3g.html).
I said that the advance of technology
meant that artificial surfaces were now much more grass-like now. In the 1980's
the unnatural bounce and the likelihood of players getting carpet burns brought
these sort of pitches into disrepute but now the increased use of 3G pitches is
inevitable. By the by, in referring to 3G pitches I think it better to use the
term artificial surface or artificial pitch rather than plastic which has only negative
connotations and is used by their detractors as a put-down.
The most high profile club with an artificial surface in
English football are Maidstone United, currently riding high in the Ryman
League Premier Division. They may well find themselves in a promotion place at
the end of the season but at present would be denied the opportunity to go up
to Conference South due to the Conference's position on artificial pitches. In
January this year Conference clubs met to discuss and vote on the proposal that
artificial surfaces be allowed in their league. The vote, fairly predictably,
was not in favour. This, together with the Football Association's ban on
artificial surfaces in FA Cup after the qualifying rounds would have appeared
to be a major setback for Maidstone United, a club who have made great strides
in recent years. After their decline from their Football League position in the
late 1980's and having folded in 1992, the club reinvented itself and now
regularly attract gates nearing 2,000 and are heavily involved with the local
community. They run disabled teams and soccer schools; their 3G pitch enables
more extensive use of the stadium than would be possible with a grass surface
and while the Ryman League has suffered over 500 postponements this season due
to the monsoon conditions the country has endured, Maidstone have not
surprisingly been able to play all of their home games.
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| The Gallagher Stadium, home to Maidstone United and their 3G pitch. |
When the Conference voted against allowing artificial
surfaces, Maidstone co-owner Oliver Ash was quoted on the club website as
saying, "We will continue to campaign for 3G to be allowed higher up the
pyramid, while the first team will push for promotion for the Ryman Premier
Division. If we were in a promotion position come the end of the season we are
very confident we would be allowed to go up on 3G.” At first sight this seemed difficult
to reconcile with the decision the Conference had made. Perhaps Mr Ash was
taking solace from the FA document, " Third Generation Football Turf
Guidance[1]"
which stated that they were considering changing the standard code of rules so
that leagues would not be allowed to refuse the use of 3G Football Turf pitches
provided they meet the required performance standards. Even so his statement
seemed overly optimistic...until this week.
On Tuesday it was announced that the FA have decided to
revisit the debate on artificial surfaces after a meeting chaired by FA
chairman Greg Dyke and including former Manchester United chief executive David
Gill. The twelve person committee agreed unanimously to abandon their
“grass-only” policy. This paves the way for games in the FA Cup competition
proper to be staged on 3G pitches and increases the pressure on the Conference
and indeed the Football League, to re-examine allowing their clubs to use
artificial surfaces. The FA ban on the use of 3G surfaces for cup ties after
the Fourth Qualifying has been mooted as a factor in League clubs not voting in
favour of their use. With that ban removed clubs like Wycombe Wanderers,
Torquay United and Burnley, who all expressed an interest when Maidstone ran a
conference on 3G surfaces, may explore the possibility of ripping up their
grass pitches.
 |
| FA chairman Greg Dyke. |
Knowing how slowly the wheels grind at FA headquarters and
given the fact that the Conference ban on 3G pitches is still in place,
Maidstone may still find their way blocked should they win promotion this
season, but with the FA stance changing, they could have a case to challenge
the Conference's position.
Opposition to the use of 3G pitches normally comes down to
one of three arguments. The first is sentiment; football has always been played
on grass and people still want to play on it. At one time I would have held a
similar position but my mind has been changed in recent months. As I have often
noted, resistance to change is inevitable - sometimes it is nothing more than
prejudice and with artificial pitch technology now so far advanced from thirty
years ago, resistance is largely based on just that...prejudice.
The argument that artificial surfaces provide clubs who use
them with an unfair advantage may carry more weight; certainly Maidstone have
lost more times on their travels than at home this season (they are unbeaten at
home in the Ryman League), but that argument can equally apply to teams who have
a grass pitch depending on the quality of it, or as back in the old days when
Barnet and Yeovil Town had notoriously sloping pitches, some other unusual
quality.
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| A common site this season at many a ground in non-League football. |
It is fair to say that the possibility of more injuries would
be a more coherent argument against 3G pitches, but even that is not proven . Simon
Barker, Chief Executive of the Professional Footballers Association, said
" It is our member’s view that they would much prefer to play on a good
quality natural turf pitch than any other surface," and he is concerned about increased likelihood
of injury. One takes his point except that there are any number of poor quality
grass pitches around and about, especially below Conference level that would be
much more dangerous and likely to cause injury than an artificial surface. A
study by Jay H. Williams, Emmanuel Akogyrem, and Jeremy R. Williams, " A
Meta-Analysis of Soccer Injuries on Artificial Turf and Natural Grass," found
that the risk of injury on (artificial) turf was 10-14% lower that on grass.[2]
I referred earlier to the fact that over 500 matches have
been postponed in the Ryman League this season; some clubs are trying to
shoe-horn half their season into the last fifty days of the season. Clubs in
the Ryman League (and a number of other leagues) are steeling themselves for the
prospect of playing four games a week every week between now and the end of the
season. Incidentally, clubs at this level, whose players generally have full
time jobs and therefore sometimes have to take time off work to travel to away
matches in midweek, and in any case have to play after a full day's work, just
shrug their shoulders and get on with it. They may moan a bit, but they get on
with it. Compare this with Premier League clubs, whose players' full time
occupation is playing football; not working in a factory or an office and
playing in their spare time, but playing football for a living, yet who go into
fits of the vapours at the prospect of having to play twice in three days now
and again!
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