EFL NEED TO GET A GRIP OF 3G DEBATE

TWO years ago – to widespread surprise – it was announced that 3G pitches would not be permitted in the EFL.

Debate over? Not likely. With Sutton United sitting atop the National League pre-weekend, the issue is more relevant than ever.

Alongside Bromley and Maidstone, Sutton are one of three Conference sides who play on an artificial surface. With six play-off spots now up for grabs, there is a high probability of at least one being in the mix.

What happens then? If Sutton stay in the top seven, they’ll have no choice but to cede their place to the team who finished eighth.

Totally unfair, not to mention embarrassing for the National League. And they’ll still be there next year, facing the exact same problem.

Of course, they could rip their pitch up in the summer and lay some grass. But Sutton – like Bromley and Maidstone – generate considerable income from hiring out their surface to the community.

It’s a tricky issue. Memories linger of the ‘plastic’ pitches that blighted the eighties. And whilst 3G is a vast leap forward, I write this nursing grazes on both knees from a veterans’ game last Sunday. Grass it ain’t.

But those pitches are the lifeblood of small clubs.

They require minimal maintenance and are weather proof, safeguarding against the cashflow problems caused by postponed games.

The EFL needs to revisit the debate now, before the Sutton situation becomes an annual headache. Before there is a mutiny from within.

Because the more lucrative 3G proves, the more attractive it will appear to all cashstrapped clubs below the Championship.

And if push really came to shove, it would be difficult for the EFL to argue in a court of law that scrapes and dodgy bounces outweigh jobs and financial security.