The continuing issue with game cancellations for grassroots clubs is at its highest with the freezing temperatures but are lower league and grassroots football pitches becoming more neglected.
Having spoken to multiple clubs around the Lincolnshire area, the general feeling on this matter is that they are. Although, as of recent the FA have started a scheme with clubs that offers grants to help upgrade pitches.
Clubs at grassroot level experience different challenges throughout the year, in summer with the hot weather the grass on the pitches will tend to be extremely dry and die which then unless taken care of will not grow back.
Whereas in winter with the freezing cold weather and rain there are a lot of called off matches, and if the pitches are deemed safe to play on it will usually be extremely damaged after just one match, the damage will usually be there for the remainder of the season.
One more recent alternative is the introduction of artificial all-weather pitches which decrease the amount of called off fixtures throughout the season and are a lot less likely to take any damage whatsoever.
These artificial pitches are an extremely expensive solution however, costing on average upwards of £300,000 meaning they will be out of a lot of club’s budgets.
When asked about these costs Ruston’s Sports FC Manager Martin Langtry had this to say; “Not only are they expensive to install they are also expensive to hire to which we are lucky enough to get it for free with having one at the club, we utilise this for training so we do not have to train on our main pitch which would add a lot more unnecessary stress and damage.”
Upon speaking to Jack Wilkinson of Ruston’s Sports FC about the artificial pitches they said; “As good as these pitches can be for football due to the quality of the surface, I find in the long run you can do a lot of damage to your body.
“I have been training and playing on these pitches for over ten years and do encounter a lot of problems with my knees due to the lack of cushion with these pitches, on grass pitches they are a lot softer to run on and offer more support.”
After speaking to Ruston’s Sports FC, I wanted to speak to a club who did not have the benefits of having an artificial pitch this took me to Nettleham FC to speak to club chairman John Thornton; “With nowhere to put one of these pitches we are unable to gain the benefits, this puts us at a slight disadvantage when travelling to clubs who play on these pitches regularly as it is a different game to that played on grass.
“We also have to train on our main pitch which can cause us issues towards the end of the season due to wear and tear which sometimes results in us finding another pitch to complete our fixture.”
