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Appalling condition of football pitches across China grounds for serious criticism
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THESE days, good news about Chinese soccer seems as elusive as a cooling breeze in the searing heat wave that’s now gripping Shanghai.
The latest incident to shatter confidence in the sport came when the much-heralded Manchester derby, scheduled to take place in Beijing on July 25, was cancelled at the 11th hour due to “bad weather and appalling conditions of the turf.”
Much of northern and central China is being pelted by torrential rain, with some regions affected by serious floods. Among the places affected is the iconic Bird’s Nest stadium, which once hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies. Chosen as the site for the Manchester derby, its pitch became too water-logged to host a decent match.
Organizers reportedly tried such desperate measures as drying the pitch with a powerful fan but failed to restore it to an acceptable condition in time for the International Champions Cup friendly between Manchester United and Manchester City. Pictures taken at the Bird’s Nest show turf marked by patches of yellowish grass. In some cases the turf was so loose that the grit underneath was revealed.
Despite the disappointment from fans, the teams could be forgiven for this last-minute change in plans. With the English Premier League only weeks away, managers of the two outfits are surely keen to avoid pre-season injuries.
This episode has again put Chinese soccer under the world spotlight, and certainly not in a favorable light.
In fact, this is not the first time Chinese soccer stadiums have become an international laughing stock. Similar complaints were aired about turf conditions less than a year ago, when Italian Serie A sides Juventus and Lazio competed for the 2015 Supercoppa Italiana at Shanghai Stadium. The atrociously uneven pitch, among many other things, drew as much criticism from the two clubs as from Italian press, which described the stadium as a “mega-sized potato field.”
‘Vegetable field’
Chinese soccer fans have a similar term for a football field riddled with potholes: “vegetable field.” If Western and Chinese soccer fans have one thing in common, it’s this unflattering metaphor.
“Vegetable field” pitches are about as old as football itself in China. For the most part, this is something local footballers have learned to live with since the game was professionalized in the mid-1990s. But nowadays, an increasing number of world-class players are also braving “vegetable fields” as a trade-off for signing lucrative contracts with Chinese clubs.
Some pay more dearly than others. It is commonly known that footballers are more prone to injuries while playing on an uneven terrain. And the lumpy field at Shanghai Stadium was said to be partly to blame for the potentially career-threatening leg injury sustained recently by Shanghai Shenhua striker Demba Ba.
In the past, Shanghai’s stadium managers could proudly take credit for keeping their turf green all year round.
But since the city’s two main stadiums have, over the years, also been used for concerts and other activities, and been exposed to the notoriously soggy plum rains of summer, their fields have slowly degenerated into the same kind of muddy “vegetable fields” seen elsewhere around the country.
If you think these eyesores are a source of shame for local sports directors, you’re wrong. In some cases, clubs that rent stadiums are reluctant to pay for upkeep, further contributing to the bad turf conditions. Instead of seeing it as a badge of dishonor, some are convinced that a pitted field will hobble their technically skilled opponents and force the game to go aerial. The potential for self-harm is given little thought.
Chinese football clubs have been tremendously over-generous in spending big on foreign players, with signings often running in the range of tens of millions of euros. But the same cannot be said of the relatively paltry sums that go into stadium maintenance. The contrast cannot be starker.
Almost every year proposals are raised regarding the issue of “vegetable fields” at meetings between Football Association officials and club managers, but obviously little has come of these proposals.
Rarely are terrain conditions an issue in major European leagues, even in third- or fourth-tier leagues. That tells you something about the semi-religious love that many Europeans hold for the sport, which begins with a well-tended turf.
Improving physical infrastructure is as important a task for Chinese football as clubs seek to recruit talented players.
Since the Chinese are capable of building top-tier infrastructure, there is no reason why they cannot repeat this feat with something much less grandiose and complicated.
I remember myself being drawn to the “beautiful game” first by the sight of the crisp green turf on TV in my boyhood.
How can “vegetable fields,” one of the biggest blots on Chinese soccer, inspire the same admiration and respect?
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