Last week's story about the Premier League banning elaborate pitch patterns for the new season certainly seems to have caused a stir.

The more one considers it the more petty and unnecessary the ruling appears to be. In fact, I have been actively searching around to find support for the Premier League's decision.

We had one comment on this newsletter last week which agreed with the new policy, essentially saying that curved patterns could cause confusion when judging off-side decisions. Which to be fair could be a legitimate concern and the one argument I've seen mentioned elsewhere online as a reason for supporting the ban.

However, what I haven't heard either before or after this decision was taken was officials, players or managers citing this as a problem?

I may be wrong, but I do not recall any teams who visited Leicester over the past couple of seasons complaining that the incredible surface which the game had been played on was a contributing factor to a loss?

Football managers as a breed are very quick to find excuses other than themselves or their players, for why they didn't perform on the day. And groundsmen know that the surface they've put their heart and soul into preparing can often be in the firing line for the manager's ire if it cuts up or suffers perceived imperfections in any way.

But blaming the way the turf has been mowed? It didn't seem to be an issue.

And judging by the outpouring of confusion and incredulity online regarding the Premier League's pattern prohibition, both fans and turf professionals alike didn't consider it to be a problem. Quite the reverse in fact - the creativity of the highly skilled grounds teams was something which brought a smile and a bit of fun to proceedings.

A selection of comments we received to this Weekly Briefing last week included:

• What happened to being British and a little artistic?! Surely this is promoted in the formats of the game, with style, flair and creativity?
• Typical reaction from the suits - let the cheats and divers get away with what they do, but penalise the groundsmen for taking pride in what they can achieve.
• What next? All supporters to dress the same? Do they not know that cutting the grass in the same direction all the time does not promote healthy grass?
• Do nothing about some vile chants but at a stroke can ban interesting pitch patterns!
• So let's see footballers all wear the same football boots from now on. Studs only, no blades and the boots must be black and white with no logos or personal messages!

The majority of turf professionals and fans who have expressed their views publicly this past week are in agreement that the move by the Premier League to fall in line with UEFA regulations is a wholly unnecessary sanitisation of the game.

However it is of course now the law and by the nature of these things, it won't be reversed because of its unpopularity.

The question now is will the lower leagues also be made to toe the line so to speak? Will regimented stripes be the only acceptable pattern across the whole of football?

If not, will we see some of the profession's more artistic proponents tempted to move to clubs away from the Premier League, in order to allow their creative flair to run free?!