The First 90 Minutes.com

Tom Dale reports on the introduction of 3G pitches and investigates the revolution of football at grassroots level.

There is no doubt that football is advancing; becoming moulded into a 21st century game which cannot be influenced by a poor refereeing decision or crowd trouble. It is not only the ongoing goal-line technology saga that has threatened to enter our game; FIFA's new range of EUROPASS footballs can turn mediocre shots into decent efforts, without 'Nike Sphere Dry' incorporated within your kit there's no way you will last the ninety minutes and 360° technology is now the only way to give your football boots the edge over opponent's. Whenever before have we been able to segregate crowds with simple technology over the internet or track the distance covered by our Premiership hero during a match? However, the most exciting invention to have entered the sport in recent years is the 'third generation' (3G) football pitch.

The number of synthetic turf pitches has grown rapidly over the last few years and there are no signs that this rate of growth is slowing. These artificial grass surfaces are virtually indistinguishable from natural grass when viewed from any distance, and are regarded to be as safe (if not safer) than the real thing. The main advantage of these pitches is that they can be played on in any weather condition and do not suffer from wear-and-tear meaning it is possible to play a full match on the same patch of plastic grass every day for a year without the surface being tarnished. Add to this the fact that football clubs are looking to reduce maintenance costs and the number of winter matches cancelled due to frozen pitches, and it is easy to see why we are seeing 3G stadiums all around the world.

Dunfermline Athletic in Scotland and the Giant's Stadium home of Red Bull New York are just a couple of examples of clubs who have already leapt into football's future. On 17th  October 2007 in a 2008 European Championship qualifier between Russia and England at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow (I'm sure we can all remember it!), FIFA and UEFA both agreed that 3G pitches could make their international debut thus proving to the football world that the natural grass pitches days could be numbered.

However will football at grassroots level be able to keep up with all these new flashy pitches or is professional football just going to leave it behind? It may be too early to reveal the answer to this question, but the signs are already promising. Despite being expensive to construct, the advantages that these pitches could bring are meaning that lower league clubs are seriously considering up-rooting the grass and mud and replacing them with their rubber and plastic cousins.

One such example is at Keynsham Town FC situated in the town of Keynsham between Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. This typical semi-professional football club has had countless problems with its pitches deteriorating as each season progresses. It remains to be seen whether clubs like this will be able to raise the sufficient funds to construct such a complex playing field. However with the possibility of donations through locals and the arrangement of social events held within the club's facilities, the futures for grassroot clubs look very bright indeed. All they need now is some EUROPASS footballs and the 21st century version of ‘the beautiful game’ will be complete!