FIFA’S PITCH PREPARATION
The data that changed FIFA’s pitch preparation strategy W
hen it comes to sports turf data collection, the requirements of FIFA echo the challenges faced by other federations in terms of the scale, depth and reporting of information needed. To bring their pitch management programme to life and extract the full amount of value from their data, FIFA turned to GrasPro and have used the system as a tool to successfully reshape their strategy. For the world’s football governing body, there are the two showpiece events in the men’s and women’s World Cups. These tournaments occur every four years worldwide, but there is also the age group World Cups held from Under 17 to Under 19. These events, for both boys and girls, are held once every two years. That means FIFA is preparing 68 | TURF MATTERS | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2021
for four tournaments at any one time, which are commonly spread across the globe. In 2019 the world football governing body took pitch maintenance in-house for the first time in the Federation’s history with the appointment of Pitch Management Manager Alan Ferguson. The sole focus for Alan was to track the quality, condition, and progress of the pitches in each country in the build-up by capturing critical performance data, which allowed himself and his team of consultants to advise on pitch maintenance in between routine visits. A large part of why this approach is so successful is the market leading scope of data users can collect with GrasPro and the collaboration
process with tournament stakeholders who can also access and review the information. Since 2019 the GrasPro pitch management system has been used to successfully deliver the men’s U20 World Cup in Poland; the Women’s World Cup in France; the men’s U17 World Cup in Brazil and two Club World Cups in Qatar. GrasPro has been used continuously in the build-up to the men’s 2022 World Cup in Qatar and multiple other age-group tournaments that have been rearranged due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
STATISTICS
n Five tournaments; 171 matches; 1,304 training sessions; 125 stadia and training pitches; three
