Football Technology and Stadia
The Millennium Stadium will soon be receiving a new pitch after a team of investigators found a parasite in the grass, it was reported on Monday (October 20th).
The surface at the Cardiff venue has often been criticised by players, not least by Wales captain Craig Bellamy after the national team's recent 2-0 win over Liechtenstein.
On closer inspection, root knot nematodes were found eating away at the grass, causing sections of the pitch to become unreliable.
Stadium manager Gerry Toms has explained that any treatment would render it unplayable for the Wales rugby team's clash with South Africa on November 8th, so a new surface will be laid instead.
He said: "The nature of this condition means that over the weeks ahead the grass quality would decline while the treatment was becoming effective.
"Clearly the window for recovery would be too small for the autumn games. We are fortunate to have a removable pitch so we were able to take the option of getting a new turf cover to replace the old one."
Mr Toms also confirmed that the replacement will not be too expensive as the existing soil and pallets will remain and only the grass will be changed.
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21 October 2010
21 October 2010
21 October 2010
20 October 2010
20 October 2010
