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| UEFA president Lennart
Johansson, seen here 09 November 2004, said synthetic pitches would be allowed
from the 2005/06 season.
[Agencies] |
European football's governing body has authorised
the use of artificial pitches
for its competitions,
UEFA's executive committee ruled.
UEFA president Lennart Johansson said synthetic pitches would be allowed from the
2005/06 season at both club and national level, provided they adhered to
quality guidelines set by UEFA.
Though qualifying matches for Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria have
the option of being played on such pitches, William Gaillard, UEFA
director of communications, said the finals would be on natural grass.
"We want to avoid the situation where players would be forced to play
on both types of surface during the finals," Gaillard said.
"UEFA believes the quality of the fifth generation of synthetic pitches
is excellent and this quality will continue to improve."
In England, Luton and Queens Park Rangers used to have plastic pitches
during the 1980's.
Clubs in Scandinavia, eastern Europe and Russia, who only play matches at
European level during the winter months, are expected to install artificial
pitches.
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2004-11-10 08:58