Well, it would seem that one of my various hobby horses seems to be running down the track nicely at the moment with the recent news that the Football Association has for the first time allowed the use of artificial pitches in every round of the FA Cup from next season onwards. The present situation being that artificial pitches are only allowed up to the first round proper of the competition, while in the pyramid structure they are only permitted up to Evo-Stik League Premier level.
Conference clubs then still seem to be rather behind the times as they voted in late January to veto the idea of having artificial pitches at Premier, North and South level by a margin of 21 votes to 11 at a meeting in Telford. The idea being mooted by Ryman Premier promotion chasing Maidstone United who had a 3G pitch installed at their newly built Gallagher Stadium in July 2012, the pitch receiving the same FIFA two star rating as the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. So, it’s alright to play Champions League games on it, but not a Conference South fixture. Go figure.
Having said that, even at that level of the pyramid things are skewed towards the bigger clubs as the voting rules give the 24 Premier clubs one vote each, while the 44 North and South get just eight votes between them, quite why that is the case I have no idea but it seems utterly ridiculous. The idea being voted down despite the large amount of postponements that had taken place across the three divisions in the same month as the vote was taken, with New Year’s Day itself seeing 22 of the 34 scheduled matches postponed.
It’s not just the fact that getting games played saves money two ways either, firstly you don’t waste money on the day the game is off through catering, staffing etc. and also you get to play your match on a Saturday when attendances are always higher than they are for rearranged midweek matches. Then there is the profit that an artificial surface can bring in through being hired out, income which can be an absolute lifeblood to some non-league clubs.
Maidstone themselves saying in the 2012-13 season that they brought in £110,000 of direct income from hiring out the pitch, while estimating in the same time period around £75,000 worth of additional revenue had been earned as an indirect effect of it. Not forgetting of course that it also becomes a community asset facility of use to everyone in the local area. Another positive aspect being that it also gives the first team a surface on which to train all year round when a lot of grass pitches are frozen or waterlogged.
Some though like to put forward the argument that an artificial surface gives the home side a massive advantage as they are used to playing on it, well that would be the case in the league if they only played every game at home. But, they don’t, they’ll end up having half their matches on a surface they are used to and the other half as away games on a grass pitch they aren’t used to. Maidstone at the time of writing this season for example have 43 points at home and 28 away, which is about as normal as you can get, while another artificial surface club in Stockport Sports (formerly Woodley Sports) have in their North West Counties campaign 24 points at home and 23 away. So, I don’t see any advantage there for either of those clubs.
There is another argument out there from people that it’s not proper football and that you can’t make sliding tackles, well they play rugby of both codes and American Football on artificial surfaces these days and you aren’t going to get much stronger tackling then you do in those sports, and if it takes out some of the more dangerous tackles you see in football then that can hardly be a bad thing either. And one final point, Lionel Messi joined Barcelona at the age of 13 and learnt his trade playing on artificial pitches for the junior teams, and it’s hardly done his career any harm.