Dutch experience of plastic pitches

[Timbo_b-o-a]

What with Sutton, Maidstone and Bromley stepping up attempts to bully the Football League into accepting them it's interesting to see what players in Holland think about playing on plastic pitches: https://www.fifpro.org/news/dutch-players-say-no-more-artificial-turf/en/
http://nltimes.nl/2017/05/18/dutch-football-captains-call-ban-artificial-turf

Of even greater concern is the potential health risks discovered by Dutch scientists posed by the repeated exposure to the black rubber crumb used and the toxins they give off:
https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/artificial-pitches-europe-to-consider-ban-after-cancer-fear/

[BenE]

It seems to me that the players that moan about it the most are the ones that play on it the least. So Feyenord lose 3-0 and it is the pitches fault?

Of course the ball behaves differently on an artificial pitch but it should not be beyond the ability of professionals to adapt their game to it. Just as they have to adapt to playing on some of the dreadful pitches in the lower leagues.

As the industry will point out there are big differences between proper 3G or 4G pitches and cheap ones.

The main difference to me is the propensity to grass burns making tackling harder but not many defenders tackle any more anyway and you can always wear leggings if you like to do good old fashioned sliding tackles (and risk the wrath of the referee).

But this is an issue that polarises opinion. Some will never be convinced that plastic pitches are not the devil's work.

[Dodgycarpet]

I had an email from o2 telling me 4g was coming to Bath, have the board something to tell us?

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