Published8. September 2024, 12:15
Football: The Praille pitch has had a lick of paint
Victim of a fungus, the pitch at the Stade de Genève had to be painted green for aesthetic reasons. But it remains very fragile before Switzerland-Spain on Sunday (8:45 p.m.).
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Valentin Schnorr
Pierre-Yves Bovigny, here on Saturday at La Praille, is the expert appointed by the ASF for lawns.
freshfocus
In ten days, nothing has changed. Or almost. The pitch at the Stade de Genève, already in very poor condition during the Conference League match between Servette and Chelsea on August 29, is not much better. It has just been painted green, in order to give it a slightly more aesthetic uniformity and to hide the parts of the pitch where there is simply no more grass. “This is something that is also done elsewhere, particularly in Italy, where television requests it,” says Pierre-Yves Bovigny, an expert on the subject for the Swiss Football Association.
Nevertheless, Sunday’s Switzerland-Spain match, which counts for the Nations League, will be played on a pitch in poor condition, after being attacked by a fungus that is spreading throughout Europe. On Saturday, for the Spanish press, this was a real issue. Barely arrived at the press conference, Luis de la Fuente was questioned on this subject. “We have noticed that the pitch is in very poor condition,” lamented the European champion coach. “But these are conditions that we have to deal with, that’s how it is.” Fine.
“The quality is not good,” confirms Pierre-Yves Bovigny, who is also a professor at l’Hepia. A lot has already been done to combat and then regenerate this pitch, but the conditions have not improved for ten days. There was blue algae, which prevented it from growing well. This requires scratching the pitch, but this is heavy work that could not be done before the match.” They will be carried out after the match, because the next match at La Praille (Servette – Lausanne on September 28) does not take place for three weeks.
However, it is a question of putting the concern into perspective, even if the change of location was considered for a time by the ASF: “It is usable, even if the rain forecast between now and Sunday evening will soften the ground a little, admits Pierre-Yves Bovigny. After the match against Chelsea, we consulted the Servette players, we asked them if the pitch was dangerous, they said no, that it was not pretty, but that it was playable.”
This may perhaps help the Swiss team against the European champion.
