Dire.
… at least not the company that got us into this mess with the turf at England’s newly-revamped national stadium.
The pitch has been an endless source of complaint; everyone from ‘Arry Redknapp to Fabio Capello to the lads from Blackpool have had their gripes about the grass underfoot, and it appears that the current pitch consultants are turning in their pitchforks and handing the gig over to someone else.
Sports Turf Research Institute, consultants for the last 13 months, will leave their job at the end of June having failed to find a viable solution for maintaining and ensuring a quality playing surface.
It was always going to be a tough job; the massive cost to build the new Wembley means that the English FA have to make money wherever they can to defray the cost. As such, you’re more likely to find a Green Day concert or yoga session at Wembley than you are a game of soccer, which means that the constant uprooting and relaying of turf provides the kind of playing surface you’d find in the dog park after a torrential downpour.
Of course, STRI make it seem like they’re not giving up, but simply that their job is done. Said chief executive Gordon McKillop: “We are pleased that Wembley has adopted our proposed strategy which should see improvements to the pitch during 2010. This new structure of pitch does not require the previous level of research and consultancy from the STRI team and, therefore, we feel it is the right time to resign.”
Right. The plan involves relaying the pitch several times a year, which is awful, and I think they’ve just had enough of taking the brunt of the criticism.
With STRI giving up, who is going to figure this out? Who can make Wembley a place where teams actually want to play?
Carl Spackler?