Return of the plastic age?

PLASTIC FANTASTIC? Athletic v Everton on Latics' plastic pitch in the FA Cup in 1990.

Technology has made artificial pitches desirable again
THE four words describing an intriguing item on the agenda at a Football League meeting today tell a story all by themselves: 'Artificial pitches: An update'.

The technology involved in such surfaces now is light years ahead of the days when balls bounced around on surfaces as tough and almost as unforgiving as concrete in the first age of the plastic pitch back in the 1980s.

Back then, you only had to look at the floor at Boundary Park to pick up severe friction burns on your knees.

The plastic of old disappeared in professional football back when the last relic was dug up at Preston in the mid-90s. At the time, it seemed it would never return.

The word 'update' indicates the development of synthetic surfaces in the intervening years, but

'revolution' is probably more appropriate when comparing those pitches of the past to the new generation used by millions of sports participants, both amateur and professional, all over the world.

Under pressure from an increasingly-vocal section of its 72 clubs, the Football League agreed at its last meeting in November to conduct a report into the pros and cons of allowing its professional clubs to install FIFA-approved artificial playing surfaces for first-team matches.

Now, just as in 1986 when then-chairman Ian Stott took the decision to install a plastic pitch at Boundary Park that lasted for five years, Athletic are in favour of turning their back on grass.

Two club officials described it to the Chronicle as a "no-brainer", given the benefits involved in making the big switch.

The economic argument is compelling: modern artificial turf is robust across the winter months and requires no expensive maintenance work during the off-season.

Fixtures which would be called off due to frost stand a better chance of going ahead, saving on the considerable costs of late postponements.

And if — as was the case the last time Boundary Park was grassless — the ground was opened up for hire by the public all-year round, the installation costs of an estimated £600,000 could, in theory, be recouped fairly quickly.

As for the players, Athletic manager Paul Dickov reckons his own men wouldn't have too many problems with the new generation of pitches being used for matches. He isn't so sure that others may not complain of stresses on joints.

"It is a hard one," Dickov said. "I wouldn't say players are as mentally strong as they were when plastic pitches were around before. I am not talking about our lads, but at some clubs all of a sudden people have sore knees and backs.

"If it is going to get games on and it is a decent surface, though, then I am all for it. We have trained on them during this cold spell and it has been very beneficial to us."

Athletic's youth team have experience of competitive fixtures on artificial pitches.

On Saturday, they collected a 1-1 draw at Wrexham's Colliers Park training ground in the Football League Youth Alliance, North-West Conference, and a year ago defeated Rochdale 2-1 in a Lancashire Youth Cup quarter-final at Hopwood Hall.

Elsewhere, FIFA and UEFA allow top-level competitive matches to be played on a certain standard of artificial surface. It is more than four years since England played a Euro 2008 qualifier in Russia's Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

Back in England, some of Athletic's contemporaries are equally enthusiastic about the potential of synthetic pitches.

If and when a Football League vote comes — probably at the AGM in June — to pass, it would need more than half of the 72 member clubs, plus over half of those clubs in the Championship, to be in favour.

"More and more — and I think a lot of people in the Football League feel like this — the commercial benefits are starting to shout up," Accrington chief executive Rob Heys said late last year, while Wycombe are also in favour of a move that would no doubt help lower-league clubs to increase community links.

On the other side of the argument, Burnley are among a number of Championship clubs opposed to surfaces which would have to be ripped out in the event of promotion to the Premier League.

And at present, the Football Association confirmed to the Chronicle that FA Cup rules prevent clubs from playing out FA Cup ties on artificial pitches. Given significant support, this could change.

Away from football, the Stobart Stadium Halton, home to Widnes Vikings rugby league club, hosts its second Super League game on the new 'intelligent pitch' on Sunday when Salford are the visitors.

This system uses the latest rubber and sand base, considered by its manufacturers to be the most suitable.

Despite the complaints of Wakefield's Richie Mathers, who took to Twitter to post pictures of post-game grazes to his arms and legs on the new pitch's 'debut', the response has been good.

"Temperatures that day were down to minus seven, so the surface felt harder underfoot than was ideal," said Alex Stead, Sales Manager UK (north) of Desso Systems, the FIFA-approved company which installed the Widnes surface.

"The feedback has been 95-per-cent positive. We have had quite a few enquiries from football clubs on the back of the Widnes project.

"In terms of pure revenue, artificial pitches allow more playing hours. But we also understand that at the top level, many footballers prefer to play on turf."

Twenty-two years ago, in the week of the 6-0 Valentine's Day massacre of West Ham, nobody from Athletic would have bemoaned playing on plastic at Boundary Park. Manager Joe Royle felt it was almost a weapon in itself.

Though there are still obstacles to overcome, the great irony is that amid a crippling credit crunch, Athletic's fondness for plastic is now once again seen as a solution, rather than a problem.