Football season delay as pitches crack open

COUNCILS have begun urging football clubs to delay the start of the season, after cracks wide enough to fit hands in emerged in pitches.

The health and safety precaution comes after weeks of hot weather across the country, causing the ground to dry up and split.

Redditch borough council has spoken to local football clubs and advised them to delay the start of the season, saying “safety must come first”. One local club, Redditch United FC, has postponed ladies’ league matches by one month, while the men’s league, starting this weekend, is facing “horrific conditions”.

Jacintha Hodgson, the club’s managing director, told The Daily Telegraph: “Having a pitch dry and hard is one thing, but they are so hard that they have started developing cracks and some can fit a man’s hand down it. So a seven-year-old’s foot going into that would certainly break. Normally we use the grass pitches during the summer months and into the winter, but when they get very wet and waterlogged we don’t play on them – this year we have the other extreme.

“The hot weather has made them unplayable.”

Some clubs say they are losing thousands of pounds from cancelled preseason matches while others are soaking pitches with water to make them safe and playable.