Some clubs in southern England have yet to play their first game of 2026, while in Wales, 30% of games have been postponed due to poor pitch conditions that are the result of a very wet winter.
According to an article on the website of broadcaster BBC, clubs all over the UK are still waiting for their first game of the new year. The broadcaster quoted a coach of a Llangollen youth team saying that it has been “an extremely frustrating season due to the persistent wet weather.” His team is facing a backlog of 12 fixtures to be completed by the end of April.
The UK meteorological office, claims that the past winter has been just 9% wetter than average. Yet the West Midlands experienced the wettest winter on record while Aboyne in Aberdeenshire received four times the expected monthly rainfall during January.
On the other hand, Scotland experienced a very dry winter in the north and the west of the country. Some places even experienced 31% less rainfall than expected.
Alternative competitions
Though extreme, the experience is not new to clubs in the UK. Following the postponement of more than 5,800 matches during the 2024/25 season, the Football Association of Wales launched a project to look at the season differently this to reduce weather-related postponements and ultimately improve the experience for players.
According to Marc Roberts, who heads Project Chwarae, the season for the under-six to under-11 age groups runs from March to November, with a break in August. For the second half of the season, there is a more flexible approach where it is up to individual leagues when in August they start. They will have a six-week break over winter, but the season will only end in only June or July.
Different maintenance calendar
The problem is not unique to the UK. Although the Netherlands has a significantly higher number of synthetic turf pitches, all main competitions are being played on turf surfaces. And despite all knowledge and equipment available, municipalities struggle to maintain surfaces in good condition, due to very busy playing calendar.
Therefore, industry organisation BSNC which represents installing and maintenance companies involved in synthetic turf and natural turf sports fields, recently introduced a new vision for maintaining the surfaces. Instead of aiming for a major overhaul of the field during the summer break, it has now resorted to doing as little as possible during this period yet having multiple smaller activities and interventions throughout the season. This includes overseeding up to five times. “There is no point in doing a major overhaul during the summer break, as contractors will only have eight to ten weeks to maintain the surface. Often the weather is not conducive to achieve a good result. That is why we are now advising to move away from major overhauls during summer breaks and aim for achieving a surface with a good grass quality and density throughout the year,” a spokesperson explained.