‘Pitch poses a massive risk’
the teams to play in this type of pitch. In that condition it does not help football. I don’t know what happened with this pitch but it’s not a pitch in a condition to play football.
“It’s a big risk to play in a pitch like this if the pictures I have seen give an accurate impression of the state of it. It’s about providing a safe place to play. If it is like I saw in the pictures, you cannot play football on it. But not because we are Tottenham. No, I think Rochdale cannot play football there too. And it’s a massive risk for their players too.”
Tottenham could yet offer financial assistance to get the pitch up to scratch. “I’m going to speak with the chairman and with the club, try to find a solution,” said Pochettino.
But Dale chairman Chris Dunphy hit back, saying: “If a manager wants to speak to his chairman, great. He can speak to Daniel Levy but the FA run the FA Cup, not Tottenham.
“His comments are ill-advised and unhelpful. It’s not his decision. We’ve been in touch with the FA throughout. For the win against Millwall, the referee was there from 9am and it’s the referee who decides whether to play, not a manager. The pitch against Millwall was considered safe and it played rather well. How he can make comments like that when he’s just looked at a picture, I don’t know.”
Dunphy added: “I’m absolutely and totally concerned with player safety. But nobody at the Millwall game had any concerns about the safety of the players.
“Pochettino is talking from complete ignorance.”
And Dunphy will not switch the game, saying: “The FA won’t be receptive to that and I won’t be. We’ve got a home game against Tottenham and we will be playing it.”