- Ben Blake reports from the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille
UEFA HAS CONFIRMED it will lay a new pitch at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille — but only after Ireland and Italy meet there tomorrow night.
“Irreversible damage” has been done to the surface during Euro 2016 and the poor conditions were evident during Sunday’s meeting between hosts France and Switzerland as players frequently lost their footing.
The roof has been closed over in order to protect it from more rainfall, and a new pitch will be brought in from the Netherlands and installed this Friday.
A statement released this evening reads: “UEFA has decided, in agreement with the host city and the stadium operator, that it will replace the pitch at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille Métropole immediately after the Group E match between Italy and the Republic of Ireland on 22 June.
“The extremely difficult weather conditions in the past few weeks (rain, humidity, lack of sunshine) have caused irreversible damage to the surface at the stadium, in spite of a series of measures (a ban on pre-match training on the pitch, use of fertilisers, seeding, mowing, light therapy and drying) put in place to allow the playing surface to recover.”
Both teams were prevented from training on the surface but they did have a walkabout on it ahead of tomorrow’s final Group E game, and Italy boss Antonio Conte was fairly critical when asked for his thoughts during the pre-match press conference.
The playing surface definitely isn’t up to hosting a European championship match. It’s not in the best state,” the Azzurri boss said.
“I don’t like coming up with excuses for my players, because we will play on this pitch tomorrow night and so will Ireland. However, we did expect a different pitch to this one, and it is a shame because the Euros have been organised very well so far.
“This pitch isn’t up to the standard of the competition.”
Listen to The42′s Ben Blake on the 98FM Euro 2016 Daily podcast throughout the tournament
