3G pitches are key for future

Maidstone

Maidstone co-owner Oliver Ash believes the subject of 3G pitches in the Football League should be back at the top of the agenda during the current crisis.

The lack of football has hit clubs hard throughout the country and Mr Ash feels now is the time to allow clubs in the EFL to use 3G pitches as a way of helping them to survive the crisis and thrive thereafter. Mr Ash was responding to recent comments from former Football Association director Dan Ashworth, now technical director at Brighton. Mr Ashworth spoke about a number of different plans to help football survive the coronavirus shutdown and said bringing artificial pitches back could help bring in funds for clubs.

There has been a ban on artificial surfaces in English professional football since 1995 because of issues which included fears over long-term injuries.

QPR, Preston, Luton and Oldham all played on plastic surfaces prior to the ban. Maidstone United incorporated a 3G artificial pitch when building their new stadium in 2012 and have benefited greatly from the income generated as they can open it up throughout the week. They say the pitch brings in around £400,000 a year in revenue and the club has recorded profits every single season since the pitch was installed. Maidstone, together with Bromley and fellow nonleague sides Sutton and Harrogate, are backing the call for change within the EFL. At present teams wishing to gain promotion from the National League into the EFL would have to rip up their 3G surfaces and replace them with grass.

Mr Ash feels now is a time to focus on the subject again. He said: “With this terrible Covid-19 crisis affecting so many people and damaging so many football clubs, which are vital to their communities, we have to think outside the box if we are to avoid financial meltdown.

“Going forward it will all be about sustainability. Clubs will have to find ways of making their businesses sustainable in the interests of their supporters and their actual survival. One obvious way of achieving this is by installing a 3G pitch.

“We have now had five years’ experience of 3G pitches in the National League. We have seen supporters and players embrace the change in playing surface; we have seen that the highest quality 3G pitches encourage good football but also allow physical players to get stuck in.”