ROOF FALLS IN ON POURLAND
Frustration for Roy as deluge catches out careless hosts
ENGLAND’S World Cup qualifying campaign descended into chaos here last night because Polish officials ignored weather warnings and failed to close the roof on their state-of-the-art £400million stadium, forcing the game to be postponed until this afternoon.
England fans booked on to flights home last night were understandably angry because most of them will now miss the match. A lack of communication added to their annoyance as news finally filtered through that the game had been postponed for 20 hours because of a severely waterlogged pitch.
Former England manager Graham Taylor, in Warsaw working for the BBC, said: ‘ This is Monty Python. Both sets of supporters are being treated disgracefully. If I was a fan I’d be booing.’
Fans also told Sportsmail last night that they were unhappy with Hodgson and his players for not coming out to thank them for being there. By the time the match was officially called off, at 9.56pm local time, the England players were changed and on the bus.
Such was the chaos here at Warsaw’s National Stadium that there was even talk of the match, scheduled to kick off at 4pm today, being played behind closed doors because of police concerns over ticketing issues.
There was a difference of opinion between Polish and English officials as to when the match should be played. The Poles wanted to postpone the game until their November friendly date but the English FA referenced FIFA regulations to win the argument and have the match played today. The final decision to stage the game today was made by FIFA match delegate Danijel Jost.
According to Polish journalists, home manager Waldemar Fornalik had asked for the roof to be left open on Monday because he thought the forecast rain would be a leveller against England.
Unfortunately the rain was much heavier than expected, leaving England without the majority of their travelling fans and Barclays Premier League clubs furious that their players will return from international duty a day late.
Last night’s problems were partly caused by the elaborate but severely flawed design of the stadium, and the fact that the roof cannot be closed when it is raining. In the dry it takes just 15 minutes.
When asked why the roof wasn’t used, Hodgson said: ‘I can’t answer that. It was pretty obvious early on that the game was not going to be played. For the Polish federation, it’s a disaster. They had a big crowd so there’s a problem in rearranging tickets for a match tomorrow.’
For Hodgson, however, the delay is also severely disruptive. ‘It is a problem because we will have to re-prepare,’ he said. ‘This game is so important. The players have done a lot of concentration and resting up and now we’ve got to do it all over again. Nobody is a winner but you can’t control the weather.
‘FIFA decided we would play tomorrow. We compromised on 4pm which was the earliest we could get the Poles to agree to.
‘The referee was aware of the safety of the players. He was very conscious that he wasn’t going to allow a game to go on if the safety of the players was in danger.
‘We’ve no other option than to play tomorrow. We wanted that. We’re here and we’d like to play and get it out of our calendar as it should be, this October.’
HODGSON stood and watched the match officials carry out an inspection at what was supposed to be kick- off time. A capacity crowd roared as the ball stopped dead every time referee Gianluca Rocchi threw it across the surface.
Earlier, coaches Gary Neville and Ray Lewington had joined Hodgson in inspecting the pitch, with Hodgson shaking his head, and it was only the England goalkeepers who even attempted what proved to be the briefest of warm-up routines. Hodgson quickly ordered them off, with the Poland players soon giving up on the idea. Club England managing director Adrian Bevington said: ‘The roof is something that’s decided upon by the stadium, in conjunction with the Polish federation, I assume.
‘We don’t have a say. We did ask the question on Monday whether the roof would be open or not, and we were advised it would be open — that’s pretty standard practice. The process now is that, while the rain continues, the roof cannot be closed. Once it stops it can be closed and we’ve said to the FIFA delegates that we expect the roof to be closed. Once the roof is closed we’d expect the ground staff to get it fit and proper for a 4pm kick-off tomorrow night.’
Asked about England’s perceived snub to the fans, Bevington said: ‘We have made it clear, frequently, just how important the supporters are to us. These are pretty unique circumstances. There’s nothing but respect for those fans who have travelled. No disrespect intended.’
Taylor summed up the extreme conditions when he said: ‘I’ve kept my eye on Roy. He’s not the tallest of men, but he’s actually sinking!’
Agnieszka Olejkowska, the Polish FA media officer, said: ‘We knew there would be rain but we could not 100 per cent predict the downpour.’
The official explained the absence of ground staff as the rain hammered down. ‘There was no need for people to be working on the pitch,’ she said. ‘We have a heating system which, if we close the roof, can dry the pitch in 30 minutes.’
The housing of the roof covering represents a serious error of architectural thinking for a stadium given the way water runs off it and drenches the areas around the centre circle.
It means there is a disastrously uneven distribution of rain water, leaving the centre circle bone dry and other areas waterlogged.
The Poles, however, do not like the roof closed. In a game against Greece during Euro 2012 the players complained about the closed roof, saying it made the air heavy and humid. Some felt it was hard to breathe on the pitch.
‘I’ve no intention of changing the team,’ said Hodgson. ‘You don’t know what will happen overnight but if everybody is fit I will play the same team.’
ENGLAND (4-4-1-1): Hart; G Johnson, Jagielka, Lescott, Cole; Milner, Carrick, Gerrard, Cleverley; Rooney; Defoe.