In Nef Stadium, where Galatasaray played its home games in the past years, the ground could not be made suitable for playing the desired fast and rusty game. The yellow and red team had high-tech players and the floor was a problem for them. Although there are various reasons for this problem, the most basic problem was that the grass could not be attached to the ground as desired.
If I have the time and the budget to spare for tickets, I watch every sporting organization I find. Football matches constitute the majority of these organizations. When I compared my stadium experiences, I thought that the main problem in the Galatasaray stadium was the arena-type tribunes that are too steep and high, and the location of the stadium. The arena style, which is ideal for creating an atmosphere, did not allow the grass to grow in a relatively dark stadium like Nef Stadium, where it is difficult to get sunlight due to its direction and high structure.
Despite being an arena, Vodafone Park, which is located on a hillside and has a different direction, did not have such a problem. Hybrid grasses were suitable for playing ball and showing the difference of quality feet if the club management did not allow concerts to be held. This was one of the hidden but important points that turned the championship race between the two teams in favor of the black and whites.
Well, is it possible to protect the ground, which is so important, only with naturally growing grass? The answer is of course no.
First of all, why are the colors of the grass different?
Anyone who has ever seen grass in his life has seen that the palm (inner) part of the grass leaves is darker and the underside of the leaves is lighter. When the lawns are cut in different directions while being cut with giant lawnmowers, when we look from the stands or on the screen, we mainly see one side of the grass. This gives us lines of light-dark greens.
So what is the purpose of these lines?
One of the purposes of the lines is to make it easier for players to position themselves. In addition, the referees make use of the lines formed by the grass to determine the exact spot where the foul occurred when a foul occurs, to determine the point to set the jump-off, and to determine whether there is an offside. Let’s take a look at how these grasses have become so important.
The emergence of modern fields or “This place used to be mulberry”…
In the early years of football, the grass fields we see today were not there, but the grass and fields still existed. On the other hand, matches were often played on clay ground. When it rained, the fields turned into a muddy sea, and the football players had to wrestle with the field. The soil would freeze in the winter and dry out and crack in the summer.
In order to keep the ball playable on the fields, the teams tried methods such as covering the fields with straw in time and burning stoves on the field so that the ground would not freeze. These methods were not very successful, and even in the 1960s, Halifax Town gave up completely and opened the Shay Stadium, where they played their home matches, to the service of the citizens as an ice rink.
Everton needs a special parenthesis here.
English team Everton may never have been the most popular team in the country, but they have been a very important team for football fields. First of all, in the early days, if the teams found such a neat grassy area, they would play there. Everton also played their games at Stanley Park, which is located between Goodison Park, which they use today, and Anfield, the home ground of their arch-rivals Liverpool. Even though it sounds like the name of the stadium when you write it like that, Stanley Park was a place no different from Pendik Beach, where people we know sat on the grass and had a picnic or something. One of the team members had a field nearby and as Everton’s spectators started to increase, the team started playing their games on that field. After a while, the team was evacuated and went to Goodison Park, as the noise of the crowd had “buffed” the landlord.
Goodison Park was one of the first examples of an improved stadium in football in 1958. Electric heaters and drainage pipes were placed under the site to drain the water from the site. Thus, the field could be kept warm in winter.
Although the system worked up to a point, the drainage system overflowed, especially due to the melting snow. The heating system has become unusable. Underfloor heating was better than expected. Therefore, the old drainage system was replaced.
It was during this period that the first artificial grasses began to appear.
The first generation of artificial turf appeared in the USA, which has not fully figured out football. These grasses had nothing to do with the realistic artificial grass we see today. If the carpet were used on the field, it would be said, “This field is so ugly, let’s play the next game elsewhere.” These grasses consisted of nylon threads glued to concrete or asphalt. The balls were bouncing wildly, the crampons made of the wrong material were sticking to the floor, and the risk of injury was high.
To protect the pitch, the Leicester City team aimed to protect the pitch by covering it with a nylon dome that looked like a giant greenhouse, giving it warm air. In the 1980s, teams from QPR, Luton Town, Oldham and Preston began using second-generation artificial turf. Having the same problems as the previous generation and called 2G, these artificial floors were banned in 1995.
And then once again money spoke.
With the move of football to television, incomes increased. On top of the increase in revenues, technical managers who already wanted good grounds began to press for better turf. At present, grass growing techniques were also developing. Finally, the grass developed rapidly when the publishers opened the mouth of the purse to “make the pitches smooth and look good on camera”.
In the 1990s, 2G artificial grass was banned. While working on 3G artificial floors that will replace 2G, which looks like rubbery, smelly floors that burn your skin when you slide on the carpet, the floor used by Huddersfield, which hosts both football and rugby matches, lasted until 2011, despite heavy use.
In 2001, FIFA and UEFA started to work on improving the quality of the ground and brought a certain standard to this issue. In 2004, field conditions entered the rules of the game. For example, the length of the grass would no longer exceed 3.5 cm.
How to make the perfect football ground?
Today, the grass can stay green for 4 seasons. This is provided by both the type of grass and newly developed technologies. In addition, grass is no longer expected to grow out of the soil, they are grown in another place and spread over the field like a carpet. So how do you make a really good floor? Let’s go step by step.
Step 1: We start with the drainage channel.
It rains on the field, floods flow, snow falls, something will definitely happen. So what are we doing? We are installing a proper drainage system towards the bottom. After correcting our site, we need to do this by opening drainage channels and covering the channels with a permanent membrane. We cover the drainage boats that we laid in the channels we dug with sand, pebbles and some substrates and level the ground again.
Step 2: Time to place the heating
The first generation heating systems only had an on-off feature. So you had to either heat the entire floor or not heat any part of the floor at the same time. In the new generation, the desired area of the field can be heated. In other words, let’s say that in Şenol Güneş Sports Complex, if the sea side is in the shade and it gets cold, it is only possible to heat that area. It is also possible to heat the field at different times and at different levels.
After the heating lines are laid, sensors that detect the ambient temperature are also placed on the field. Optionally, irrigation channels can be placed at this level. Thus, freezing of the pipes or the water in the pipes can be prevented, especially in regions where winters are difficult.
Step 3: Then let’s throw the substrate again.
The purpose of this substrate is to protect both our pipes and the grass and our players. We throw it in two layers. The first layer consists of pebbles and thick sand. In the second layer, soft soil with a sandy texture is used. The thickness of this layer varies from region to region, but is roughly 20 centimeters.
At this stage, the floor now needs to be as flat as possible. For this reason, it is necessary to make sure that the substrate is evenly distributed and the ground becomes flat.
Step 4: Let’s lay our lawn.
Yeah, let’s chill. Nobody grows grass on the field anymore. These grasses are produced by specialized companies with a 14-month study, according to the incoming demand. Then, piece by piece, it is laid on the field like a carpet. Although the teams can grow their own grass, this method is not preferred. Natural grass can handle a maximum of two events per week. Afterwards, the field begins to spill and crumble.
There are different grass options offered by lawn growers to teams. In other words, there are differences between the grass used in Corendon Airlines Park Antalya and the grass used in Sivas Yeni 4 Eylül Stadium. Moreover, the options are not limited to this. There are also alternatives such as grass where the ball goes faster, grass with less bounce, grass that recovers faster. When our grass comes, we spread it on the field and water it.
Step 5: Let’s connect the pitch.
Since our grass comes in rolls like carpets, we have to patch our grass to keep them together on the field. Machines using fiber threads and nylon tie together the pieces of grass laid on the field. These bonds make up three percent of an average floor. These patch seams go about 20 centimeters deep. Grass roots are also growing around these seams.
Step 6: Maintenance, because if we don’t, it becomes a field.
If we don’t take care of our lawn after a few hundred thousand dollars, millions of dollars depending on the place, very soon the field will become unusable again. That’s why we need to take good care of our lawn. At this point, stadiums are unfortunately one of the first enemies of turf.
Once, the grass on the field was surrounded by stands. This causes the air flow to be slow and winds are not often encountered. Over time, the grass begins to collapse and lie down. For this reason, it is tried to create a wind effect with giant ventilators.
In addition, foot lights are provided to warm the grass. Although this method provides significant advantages for lawns that do not receive enough sunlight, it can also trigger fungus and weed growth in the field. And we mow them all with large lawn mowers.
Step 7: Mowing the lawn is the most enjoyable part of the job
This mowing is also not done haphazardly, the lawn is pruned by 2 millimeters every day until the match days. Then we need to fertilize our field with a nice suitable fertilizer. In addition, it will be necessary to sow seeds in the heavily eroded areas of the field several times a year. Holes must be drilled in the floor for air and water flow.
Modern machines are able to mow the lawn in millimeters. Grasses that are cut too deeply can turn yellow over time.
As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, the grass appears as light or dark green depending on the cutting direction. These different colored stripes have to be either perfectly vertical or perfectly horizontal. Because, according to FIFA and UEFA rules, other shapes are not allowed on the floors. It is known that there were teams that preferred to mow in a round shape or diagonally before. When the field lines are drawn, we are ready to play the match.
As you can see, football is now a game where there is competition in every field, and playgrounds have become a part of this competition.
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