FA act as Wembley turf war escalates

This weekend's FA Cup semi-finals were hampered by uneven turf that Sir Alex Ferguson claimed affected his team selection and was, at best, spongy and dead'.

Frank Lampard added his voice to the argument today when he called for non-football events to be moved away from the stadium as Arsene Wenger claimed that the ground will never be in a suitable condition for a good match'. The FA insist the pitch will not be re-laid before the FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Everton on 30 May, but will be replaced before the Community Shield in August, after the ground has held another three pop concerts.

An FA statement said: "Wembley Stadium is working continuously with independent consultants and the grounds team to assess maintenance procedures and pitch composition. They aim toovercome these challenges and ensure the most suitable surface is achieved for all codes of sport.

"Whilst recent changes to the surface have seen improvements in player traction, we accept there are still further improvements to be made."
It has been revealed that Wembley, which cost around £798m to build, is having to use a different kind of pitch to that used by Premier League clubs because of the need for it to be re-laid after hosting concerts.

Most top flight clubs use a seeded DESSO pitch, which takes around three months to bed in and can't sustain concerts as well. Wembley uses a fibre turf pitch instead, so it can be replaced more regularly and handle the various events.

Midfielder Lampard, who starred for Chelsea in the 2-1 win over Arsenal in the semi-final on Saturday, was left unimpressed by the state of the surface and believes it has been spoiled by the ground hosting too many functions.

He told Chelsea TV: "It wasn't good and it isn't good. I don't know why they have so many events here and things like that. It just means the pitch cuts up and is bobbly.

"It is not the way it should be kept. It should be kept in perfect condition for England games, FA Cup games and the play-offs. At the moment's it's not."

Between September and December last year, Wembley was used for only one football match, when England played Kazakhstan. But it also hosted a Madonna concert, an NFL game, a rugby match between Barbarians and Australia as well as the Race of Champions, which involved building a motor racing track on the surface.

Arsenal boss Wenger joined Ferguson in his criticism and reiterated his stance today, when he claimed: "You will never see a good football match on a bad pitch. It is like that. I just would think they should have to reconsider the whole structure of the pitch. At the moment they can relay it every three months and they will always have a bad pitch.

"It is not good enough for the Champions League Final, for the Olympic games, not for the semi-final of an FA Cup. Why? Because the first priority is that the pitch is good when you build a new stadium. If that is not right, the whole stadium is bad no matter how much money you spend."