In what The Scotsman are describing as another twist in the Hampden Park pitch 'fiasco', the surface is to be ripped up today (Monday April 11th) and relaid in time for this weekend's Scottish Cup semi-finals.
This will mark the fifth time in seven years and the second time in just five weeks that Hampden has been relaid because of problems with the surface - and comes following last week's story of how some Scottish groundsmen have expressed dissatisfaction with the Hampden pitch being awarded the SPFL's top award recently.
Hampden Park Ltd announced the new relay shortly after Ranger's 4-0 victory yesterday over Peterhead in the Petrofac Training Cup final at the national stadium. Commentators again described the state of the pitch as poor during the game.
The Scotsman quotes Rangers manager Mark Warburton as saying, "The pitch was difficult today. You could see in the first ten or 15 minutes that we couldn’t get the ball down and play. It was hard to play on.“I know a lot of work is going on, I appreciate that, but you have to question how a new pitch can go down.
“My concern is if we have any adverse weather this week. If we have adverse weather Thursday or Friday, Hibs v Dundee United on the Saturday and then Celtic v Rangers on Sunday. I’m not sure how you bed a new pitch in over three days but I’m not an expert on surfaces.
“When you have 45,000 or 50,000 fans at the national stadium, you want the best game of football possible, don’t you?
“I understand that problems can occur and you have to find a solution to deal with them as swiftly and properly as possible. But there are some big games coming up on the pitch here and it is the national stadium.”
It is reported that the latest work on the pitch will be carried out free of charge by Hampden’s suppliers.
In a statement Peter Dallas, managing director of Hampden Park Ltd (HPL) said, “This latest action is deemed necessary after discussions with our pitch supply chain and representatives from the independent Sports Turf Research Institute [STRI] following the installation of a new surface only five weeks ago,” said Dallas.
“While the pitch is in an adequate playing condition, and has been professionally managed with an extensive maintenance and nutrition programme, regrettably it became evident that the rye grass in certain strips had not grown as expected.
“Given the recent six-figure investment, we expressed our concerns through the established supply chain and reached agreement that a new surface would be re-laid at no cost to HPL. We are confident that this action will provide the best possible playing surface for the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-finals and, indeed, the climax to the Scottish football season.”
