Source: FOOTYMAD
FA claim victory over Wembley pitch
The Football Association chairman Lord Triesman has insisted that Wembley's pitch problems are over after the groundstaff finally got to grips with "microclimates" at the stadium. The Football Association chairman Lord Triesman has insisted that Wembley's pitch problems are over after the groundstaff finally got to grips with "microclimates" at the stadium. The turf has been relaid 11 times since the new stadium opened in 2007, most recently for Saturday's FA Cup final between Chelsea and Portsmouth. Even though the pitch is expected to be relaid seven times a year for the next 13 years due to the number of different sports and concerts held in the stadium, Lord Triesman claimed the poor surfaces seen in the past will be consigned to the history books. "For quite a long period during the season we got the pitch to be a good pitch. England coach Fabio Capello and everybody else commented that it was a very good playing surface," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind that one way or another, whether it was the way it was being maintained or whatever, it slipped backwards. "But we know how to get a good pitch there and I think people in the international community know that we can and we did. "It is still a relatively new stadium, it has a very peculiar microclimate but we have got the stadium as it is, and we know how to get it to a really good playing surface." The turf has been relaid 11 times since the new stadium opened in 2007, most recently for Saturday's FA Cup final between Chelsea and Portsmouth. Even though the pitch is expected to be relaid seven times a year for the next 13 years due to the number of different sports and concerts held in the stadium, Lord Triesman claimed the poor surfaces seen in the past will be consigned to the history books. "For quite a long period during the season we got the pitch to be a good pitch. England coach Fabio Capello and everybody else commented that it was a very good playing surface," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind that one way or another, whether it was the way it was being maintained or whatever, it slipped backwards. "But we know how to get a good pitch there and I think people in the international community know that we can and we did. "It is still a relatively new stadium, it has a very peculiar microclimate but we have got the stadium as it is, and we know how to get it to a really good playing surface."
