The old Wembley Arena was opened up in 1923 and had a track record of for maintaining one of the finest playing surfaces in England. Its wide open spaces would sap the power from the legs of even the fittest players. Once the Empire Stadium finally closed its doors in 2000, the wonderful playing surface was torn up along with the entire stadium.
England fans had to wait 7 more years until the new Wembley Stadium opened its doors. The new 90,000 seater stadium was classified by UEFA as a 5* Elite Stadium and is the second largest in Europe after the Nou Camp in Barcelona. The first full international was played versus Brazil on 1st June 2007.
The building of the stadium was late and significantly over budget yet the problems didn’t finish there. Operational problems like faulty escalators on match days were encountered but there is a continuing predicament that so far has not be adequately dealt with – the pitch.
Pitches at new stadiums as a rule require some time to settle down but at Wembley the playing surface is a problem and is undoubtedly one of the worst around. It cuts up far too easily and players slip over too often. In a recent FA Cup semi final, at least one of the goals was because of a player losing their footing at a critical moment as the playing surface gave way. By the end of the 2009/2010 season, the playing surface had been relaid 10 times at a cost of £1m and the stadium had not even been up and running for 3 years.
The truth is, relaying the pitch every 3 months is not the remedy. The layout of the stadium prevents the natural conditions of light and wind can’t get to the playing surface to entice the turf to develop. Some stadia such as the one in Gelsenkirchen in Germany is on rollers so in between games, the entire playing surface is transferred outside the arena. Other stadia have plenty of air flow in the stands allowing the air to flow and it is possible to use artificial lights to aid the playing surface to develop.
Alas, there are still problems and a fix needs to be found. In September 2010, England begin the process of their qualification for Euro 2012 and they are definitely the top team in their group. The one thing England don’t need, is their opponents helped by a low quality Wembley pitch. The matches at Wembley are supposed to give England home advantage.
