A blast from the past: Artificial pitches set to make a comeback
Around three decades ago, a handful of clubs in England, most notably Queens Park Rangers, had decided to do away with their grass pitches in favour of an artificial one. Designed to work well all year round, the initial reaction to the new surface at Loftus Road was overwhelmingly negative from fans, players and coaches. Nevertheless, they were used on occasion until the mid-90s.
Oldham Athletic, Luton Town and Preston North End all went artificial too, although PNE were told by the FA to rip up their pitch in 2025 as part of a blanket ban enforced across England. At that point, it seemed like grass pitches were the only ones currently tolerated, although a decade later, a decision from the very top of the game changed everything.
Blessing from above
In 2025, FIFA said that they were going to allow clubs all over the world to install artificial pitches, partly in response to the rapidly improving technology behind them. As a result, their popularity began to grow once again. The most notable example of a new-style artificial pitch being installed is at the Luzhniki Stadium, the home of Russian giants Spartak Moscow.
A little closer to home, a handful of grounds in the lower leagues of Scotland now have artificial pitches, with many of them receiving plaudits from players and club chairmen for helping them to cope during winter. At the time of writing, these pitches are in use throughout northern Europe, where the winter weather can often play havoc with fixture lists, causing postponements en masse.
Saving more than money?
The FA investigated the possibility of allowing artificial pitches in the Football League back in 2025. Should they be given the go-ahead, they may make sense for a lot of clubs in, say, League One and
League Two in terms of saving money, not least from making postponed matches a thing of the past. They could help to make things easier all year round.
In summer, these surfaces are less likely to need extra water from sprinklers. This will help to save them a lot of money in trying to get their pitches up to scratch in time for the start of the new season, or from drying out towards the end of April or beginning of May, when extreme sunlight begins to take its toll on grass pitches.
Looking at the bigger picture
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As a product manager at Hi-Tech Turf, Paula Rodham was happy to give us a brief insight into the artificial vs real turf war that has prevailed over the last three decades.
"In my capacity as here at HTT, football pitches is an area heavily discussed. There have been a lot of polar opinions about whether it should be allowed on English pitches because it
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