It was a concerning moment for England fans when, early in their 1-1 draw with Denmark, Kyle Walker slipped, took a huge chunk out of the Frankfurt turf and briefly looked in some trouble.
Ultimately, the worst Walker had to deal with was a change of boots, but a disintegrating surface became a repeated theme of the game. The turf at the Deutsche Bank Park cut up horribly and afterwards the ground staff filled buckets with lumps of grass and soil that had come loose.
As it turns out, the bad surface may have been — indirectly, perhaps — because of a pair of NFL games held back in November.
England were at pains to clarify that they were not trying to use the poor pitch as an excuse for a disappointing result. But both manager Gareth Southgate and captain Harry Kane were critical of the surface after the game.
“I’ve been a defender,” said Southgate. “When you play on a pitch like that it puts you on edge because you’re not quite sure of your footing and you’re not quite sure when one moment, one slip could cost the team.” Kane added that the pitch was “tough” and “not easy to play on”.
Walker and the turf cutting up under his feet (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
It wasn’t just the complaints of a team who had played badly. After the game, a statement from UEFA said: “UEFA and its independent pitch consultants have been working closely with the grounds team in Frankfurt in the the build-up of the tournament to guarantee optimal playing conditions and have seen the overall pitch rating improve consistently over the course of the previous season.
“A detailed maintenance plan is in place to address specific issues and further improve quality ahead of the upcoming fixtures at the venue.”
Pitch issues have been a theme of Euro 2024.
Dusseldorf’s pitch was relaid three times between the end of the domestic season and the tournament starting: once after the regular fixtures had been completed, then again after the relegation play-off between Fortuna Dusseldorf and Bochum. UEFA inspected it before the tournament and deemed it to be sub-standard. They ordered that the pitch be relaid again, not much more than a week before its first game, between France and Austria on June 17.
In Hamburg, the pitch at the Volksparkstadion was the subject of complaints from both Virgil van Dijk and Ronald Koeman before the Netherlands faced Poland in their opening fixture last Sunday. Again, the pitch there had been relaid before the tournament at the behest of UEFA after an inspection. In the event, the Dutch did not complain about the surface having played on it, but it clearly wasn’t ideal.
Other, slightly more minor complaints include Switzerland having to move from their training facilities after the grass died on their practice pitches in Waldau. They eventually moved to Stuttgart’s training facility nearby. Croatia head coach Zlatko Dalic, slightly strangely, declared that the surface in Berlin for their defeat to Spain in their opening game was “too dry”.
But by far the most obvious, visible problems have come at Frankfurt. Those problems began back in November, with the visit of four of the NFL’s biggest teams, including the eventual Super Bowl winners.
Frankfurt hosted two NFL games: the Kansas City Chiefs against the Miami Dolphins, followed by the New England Patriots against the Indianapolis Colts. Ahead of those games, a new hybrid synthetic-natural grass pitch had been installed, partly as a result of complaints from players who took part in previous NFL games in Munich which were played on entirely natural grass.
The events themselves were great successes, but the two NFL games had left the Deutsche Bank Park pitch in such a poor state that Eintracht were forced to rip it up and re-lay it — again.
The NFL games in Frankfurt damaged the pitch (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
They had to do that with some urgency: Frankfurt had a home game there against Stuttgart two weeks later, and at such short notice the only surface that was possible to put down was natural grass.
So they had to make do and, while they discussed relaying the pitch again during the season, there wasn’t enough time. “Pitches can be turfed quite close to a game being played on it — two weeks out — and be perfectly playable, with the right depth and quality of turf,” says Jason Booth, chief operating officer of the Grounds Management Association. “The longer the turf is laid prior to use, the better the player experience should be as it allows time for an increased root mass to develop to aid stability.”
With that in mind, the decision was made to stick with what was there. After a series of concerts that are planned in Frankfurt (including a couple of dates by German heavy metallers Rammstein), they plan to put down a hybrid pitch ahead of the new season.
In those hybrid pitches, only around four to six per cent of the grass is synthetic, but it does make plenty of difference, as Booth explains: “Hybrid pitches should help to avoid pitches from severely cutting up and having divots kicked out as they replicate the stability that would normally come from strong or deep roots.”
They don’t come cheap, or easy: Booth estimates that a hybrid pitch, with full installation and construction, would cost around £1million ($1.3m) and “requires the availability of a replacement pitch and operational capacity to carry out the operation — circa 24 articulated trucks arriving at 45 minute to one-hour intervals”.
The poor state of the surface during the England game, and also during Belgium’s surprise defeat to Slovakia at the same venue, was something of a surprise to those involved. UEFA had inspected the pitch before the tournament, gave it a rating of four and a half out of five and, unlike in Dusseldorf and Hamburg, did not suggest it should be replaced.
UEFA promised to try and improve the state of the surface before the next game there, between Germany and Switzerland on Sunday, but there is only a limited amount that can be done.
“Issues such as the pitch cutting up badly and big divots need time to resolve,” says Booth. “Usually a prolonged process and plan of maintenance will rectify these issues, and these are likely to take weeks and months rather than days.”
A groundsperson works on the pitch in Frankfurt (James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images)
UEFA’s specialists, working with the Frankfurt groundstaff, will use sand to replace some of the divots and put heated lamps over the grass for as long as possible to dry it out. But the same issues may appear again.
“This kind of thing really brings home the importance of a good pitch — particularly to allow players to go 100 per cent in, because they have confidence in the surface,” says Booth. “We talk a lot about how grounds teams literally make sport possible. They are often unsung heroes of the game, and we need to respect them and give them the resources they need.”
Problems with the pitches haven’t been universal in Germany. In Dortmund, the stands might not have coped that well with the torrential downpour during Turkey vs Georgia on Tuesday, but the pitch seemed to hold up. The AufSchalke Arena in Gelsenkirchen has a retractable pitch, meaning it can be grown in slightly more open and natural conditions, outside the stadium itself.
But the pitches with problems are due to host games beyond the group stages: Frankfurt has a round of 16 game, Hamburg has a quarter-final, Dusseldorf has one of each. UEFA and the local authorities will do what they can to improve things, but don’t be surprised if some of the remaining tournament is played on surfaces we are not used to seeing in 2024.
(Top photo: Arne Dedert/picture alliance via Getty Images)