Artificial turf unmasked

[pete 2,499]

 

 

After the furore that the Livingston artificial surface threw up (litrerally with all the black balls) I decided to try and bring these artificial surfaces into an article for the Gersnet readers to understand them a little bit better In Scotland in the premier division there are three teams that make use of the artificial surfaces. Kilmarnock Livingston and our opponents on Saturday Hamilton.In the last few weeks I heard the question why Rangers had less problem against Kilmarnock as against Livingston. The answer is it is a totally different surface and technology has improved in the making of Artificial turfs. Are they as good as real grass I will try and answer later.

 

Due to this problem being a hot topic in Holland, where I lived for thirty three years, I have always been interested in the development of the artificial playing fields. Artificial grass was first brought out in the sixties in America for honk ball teams who have virtually no problem with the bounce or run of the ball. Then the second generation turf was brought in which was artificial grass filled up with sand to hold the grass fibres up. All of a sudden all Hockey fields moved to Artificial surfaces as real grass was quickly worn away by the speed of the sport.

At this point QPR applied for and were granted permission from the FA to lay an artificial pitch but after a series of burned body parts due to the plastic that permission was later reversed at the end of the season and artificial surfaces were banned from football in England. The makers had to find a solution to make it fit for football.

 

This is where the third generation pitches came in. The Fibres were made of polythene which is much softer and doesn't burn the legs in slide tackles. Instead of sand rubber crumbs were added in their trillions to hold up the grass fibres and also to dampen the shock on the legs to reduce injuries and get a better bounce of the ball. These rubber crumbs are made up of recycled car tyres and have been a topic of health safety ever since they were produced. In fact they come with a health warning of not to inhale the fumes or get them on your skin. There have been tests done in America and they came to the conclusion that there was a significant risk in getting cancer from the rubber crumbs. The strange thing, or maybe not so strange, is that a large number of the sufferers claiming to have got cancer from the pitches are goalkeepers.maybe not surprising when you think of a keeper regularly diving into the corrals head first inhaling fumes and probably also swallowing some of the flying corrals.

As I worked with Dunlop in Inchinnan in the late seventies making tyres I don't need to go on to any website to know what a lot of unhealthy crap goes in and comes out of tyres. I just have to think back to what we called, the black mill, and see the black dust thick on the walls. Normal Scottish milk bottle coloured workers looking like they had just arrived out of the slave ships from Africa. I was offered promotion into there which would have probably doubled my wages but said thanks but no thanks. Another thing with tyres is they are built up firstly of layers of thin rubber and metal sheets for strength and then at the end a thick rubber outer which gives you the tread. In the Dutch research which included taking a urine sample from players after a game they found that the players had a high level of Zink in their blood but still managed to come to the conclusion that the pitches form no health issues.

I am not learned enough to pass judgement on any medical issues but if you look at Livingston who have won three games at home and only one away then it does seem to me that they do carry an advantage of training and playing on that pitch.

 

Kilmarnock use a Field Turf pitch which is the only pitch supported by FIFA. These pitches are also qualified for the Champions league. We all know though with Fifa that they have in the past given their support to a back hander rather than a better product. Field Turf certainly seem to have most of the big teams with their advert being:

** Training surface of prestigious European football clubs including Manchester City, Arsenal, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid CF, Juventus Turin, Inter Milan, Ajax Amsterdam and Paris Saint-Germain: That is quite a list.

 

Funnily enough the last I can find on Rangers training pitches is:

“The 60 x 40 metre indoor synthetic pitch allows players to train whatever the weather and is laid on a bed of sand and tiny rubber crumbs designed to cushion the surface and prevent injuries. This revolutionary new surface closely mimics real grass and is used by other top clubs such as Ajax.”

As we have just read that Ajax now have Field turf training pitches, hopefully Rangers have also moved on and upgraded . After our performance against Livingston it would be horrible to think we could train under the same circumstances as Livy and get gubbed by a country mile.

 

Most top teams today do not have a total grass park. They have Hybred pitches and that is including Rangers. A hybred park is where an artificial mat is laid 20 centimetres below the surface. Then earth is added to cover and real grass is sown. The real grass grows into the artificial grass making it stronger and vastly improving the drainage.

 

Hamilton on Saturday also have an artificial surface and it is made by a firm callled Tiger Turf. Thankfully it is from the new technoligy woven artificial grasses and not a rubber crumb effort. I can understand small clubs wanting to hang on to plastic pitches as it saves a lot of money as you can train on it everyday whch takes away the need for a training facility. There is also no longer need for under soil heating as the artificial surface does not freeze.. I honestly believe that one day every team will have an artificial pitch but to answer my question if they are as good as grass pitches at this moment then I revert back to Holland. Would Ajax (Who have four state of the art, Field turf training pitches okayed for the Champions league) PSV and Feynoord be willing to give up European money to make the Ere divisie all real grass pitches. Nothing beats real (Hybred)grass at this minute and that is the pitch every SPF team should have.

 

Nowadays in Hockey they play on a blue artificial pitch as they can see the ball better. Now that is an improvement I could get warm on that.

 

 

[JFK-1 1,693]

Quote

Generally, it takes 20,000–40,000 scrap tires to produce enough filling to cover an average football field.

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection found in a 2010 study that stormwater passing through crumb rubber regularly exceeded aquatic acute toxicity for zinc.

 

Additionally, copper, barium, manganese and aluminum were found at elevated levels after stormwater contacted the materials. Semi-volatile organic compounds and PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ) were found to be elevated as well. 

 

[der Berliner 3,747]

Imagine the day the SPFL sets aside money for every professional football club to have decent enough grass pitches?! What a revolutionary idea ...

[Briton 314]

On 17/10/2018 at 05:39, pete said:

 

 

I am not learned enough to pass judgement on any medical issues...

 

Once you realise the the plural of anecdote is not data it helps in understanding the scientific method.  I think most of us have some reservations when it comes to these pitches but actually none of the actual science shows any detectable increase in cancer risk or confirmation that injuries are more common.

Edited October 18, 2018 by Briton