The Belgian Pro League has launched a drive to tackle poor stadium pitches. The league has introduced a “Sports Field Management Manual” and distributed measuring equipment to clubs in Belgium’s top football league.
For a long time, stadium pitches in Belgium were neglected. With an average of eight injuries per 1,000 hours of football played, the pitches can also be considered “dangerous.”
“We are now investing where it all begins: the pitch, so that players can perform better,” says Lorin Parys, CEO of competition organiser Pro League. However, he is realistic. “We have high expectations, but we don’t expect them all to immediately meet the quality golf courses are known for. It’s a process that will involve trial and error.”
The manual discusses various aspects of field management. It also discusses the information that must be included in the Pitch Protection Map. “It is very important to us that the Pro League has included this. Now that their logo is on it, the players are obliged to follow our instructions,” said KRC Genk groundsman Eddy van Endert, who co-wrote the manual with several other colleagues.
New measuring equipment
An important part of the campaign is that clubs will now be able to test the quality of their pitches themselves. All clubs received a basic set of measuring equipment. To this end, the Pro League entered into a partnership with the Belgian company Raw Stadia. “We are seeing increasingly warmer summers and wetter winters, which make pitch management more challenging,” says Jan Strykers, CEO of Raw Stadia.
As part of the collaboration, all clubs receive their Raw Artificial Athlete and an infiltration meter. These enable them to measure hardness, energy restitution, shock absorption, deformation, and shear deformation as well as water infiltration.
“Some measurements need to be taken weekly and others monthly. In addition, the infiltration capacity of the field must be tested every quarter.” All the data is uploaded to a portal so that the Pro League can monitor the condition of the field over a longer period of time.
This knowledge won’t be shared with third parties. “It is purely for the league. Except for the Pitch Protection Map, on which the club indicates where players are allowed to warm up on the field, nothing is made public,” a spokesperson for the Pro League assured us. “For us and the individual clubs, it’s about being able to determine how a field behaves, and now, based on data, carry out certain maintenance activities. Thanks to that data, the groundskeeper can now better justify why the club or stadium management should invest in certain maintenance activities.”
The clubs are not obliged to use the testing equipment. “But if they don’t, they’ll only have themselves to blame,” he adds. “The data will help clubs to plan maintenance better over the long term, making field management cheaper. At present, clubs are constantly taking emergency measures because of a problem that suddenly arises instead planning maintenance activities ahead and in an organized fashion. This approach is much more expensive to the club and detrimental to the staff,” says Strykers.
For the time being, the Pro League and Raw Stadia are entering into a two-year agreement with an evaluation at the end of this season. The collaboration will cost the clubs nothing.