Irrespective of whether you produce, sell, install or enjoy synthetic turf for sports, it is inevitable that at one point you’ll have to deal with him, see his name or reap the fruits of his efforts. From the moment he entered the marketplace in 1979, Professor Alastair Cox has been involved in laying the foundation of quality standards of modern synthetic turf products. “Shortly after I joined the Rubber and Plastics Research Association (RAPRA) in 1979, the British Government decided to make significant investments in sports infrastructure to keep kids off the streets, as the country was grappling with social unrest and discontent at the time. They deemed the absence of quality standards undesirable as they were investing a lot of money without knowing the quality, suitability or how long a product were to last. RAPRA had me joining a team of four to five people that was tasked with developing the standards,” Cox recalls from his early days.

A few years later, history repeated itself. “The move by Queens Park Rangers to fit its football stadium with synthetic turf caught everybody by surprise, as nobody had been consulted. At the time, the FA had not laid down any rules regarding the quality of the surface.” Where several smaller clubs recognised the opportunities of opening the home ground to host grassroots football, established clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United were reluctant. To avoid any dispute, the FA decided to develop rules and guidelines for football surfaces. “As nothing had been defined, we set out with the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) to define the basic requirements for aspects like ball roll, ball bounce and shock absorption. Today, this works still forms the core of quality standards for football surfaces, be it natural or artificial.” Shortly thereafter, Cox embarked on a similar drive for the International Hockey Federation (FIH) before establishing and managing the British subsidiary of testing institute Labosport for 10 years. In 2015, Cox became an independent consultant. “I was fortunate to secure two long-term part-time contracts, as both the FIH and ESTO, the predecessor of the EMEA Synthetic Turf Council (ESTC), were in need of a technical advisor, while not being in a position to employ somebody fulltime.” These days, he also works as a FIFA consultant on FIFA Development football turf related projects and chairs committees like the European Standards Committee (CEN) for sports surfaces.