Controversy over the grass of the soccer field...Change your perception rather than tinkering
Controversy over the grass of the soccer field...Change your perception rather than tinkering
Blog Article
Not long after the opening of the professional soccer K-League, the grass problem has emerged, causing a lot of noise in the soccer community. There is something that is being missed amid a series of diagnosis that various solutions such as adjusting the schedule of the league, putting in grass management personnel, and securing finances are needed to improve the problem. It is a backward perception of the environment of the soccer stadium.
The showdown between FC Seoul and Gimcheon Sangmu in the third round of Hana Bank's K League 1 2025 held at Seoul World Cup Stadium on the 3rd drew more attention than the game itself.
Even in the weather where the wind chill is below zero, 24,889 cloud spectators gathered, and the two teams played a frustrating game for 90 minutes in a messy grass environment, eventually failing to score a goal and drawing.
As much as the players on the ground, pens who had to watch below-expectations were uncomfortable.
Seoul World Cup Stadium is not the only place where the grass condition is so bad that the game is not played properly.
This year's K-League opened two to three weeks earlier than usual in the aftermath of the Club World Cup and the East Asian Cup, but most of the stadiums are in poor grass condition due to the cold until early March.
Jeonbuk Hyundai, which plays the AFC Champions League 2 (ACL2), will play its home game at Mir Stadium in Yongin about 170km away on the 6th according to the AFC's judgment that the grass condition is inappropriate.
In addition, stadiums are also dug up quickly because the grass is frozen and slippery, and the roots are not properly established yet. As Seoul coach Kim Ki-dong said, the grass is in bad condition, but the damage is aggravated as the game continues.
The season's opening is not wrong in itself. This year, the Korean Professional Football Federation considered the FIFA Club World Cup and the East Asian Football Federation E1 Asian Cup, and advanced the season's opening due to multiple reasons, including a plan to minimize midsummer matches, which had been criticized so far. In the process, the federation even conducted a survey on Korea's climate data from February to March.
A more fundamental problem is that domestic grass facilities and management systems that can respond to the variable of cold are still insufficient.
There is a lack of infrastructure that maintains temperature with steam on the grass floor like Europe or a systematic grass management system like Japan.
To solve this problem, it is necessary to solve complex challenges such as the current system in which the Korea Facilities Management Corporation owns the stadium, not each club, and the limitations of the entire K-League market, which cannot invest a lot of money in grass management in reality.
Prior to this, the first thing to do is the perception of soccer officials about the stadium environment, including grass.
The Professional Football Federation recently made a new rule that "if the ground condition is so bad that it cannot play a normal game, the Professional Football Federation can change home and away stadiums or impose an obligation on home teams to find a third stadium."
However, the actual effect of the regulation is minimal. The system allows a match supervisor to check the grass conditions three to four hours before kick-off and decide whether the regulation applies to the regulation, but the Seoul-Kim Cheon-jeon in question was also found to be "not abnormal."
The result was devastating. "I couldn't do the rear build-up that I prepared at all. Both teams are victims," Kim said, while Seoul's Jung Seung-won confessed, "Both ankles are twisted. All the players couldn't plan a proper soccer strategy during the half-time and just wanted to kick safely." This means that a top-level professional soccer match was held on the grass where games were not supposed to take place.
It is not to "witch hunt" the judgment of a specific supervisor. I would like to point out that the view of Korean soccer on the stadium environment as a whole is far from international standards, let alone at the level of advanced countries.
In fact, the AFC decided that it was inappropriate to host the first round of the ACL2 quarterfinals based on reports from AFC supervisors that have consistently criticized the grass of the Jeonju World Cup Stadium.
However, at the same stadium, the 온라인카지노 K League 1 match between Jeonbuk and Gimcheon Sangmu on February 16 and Jeonbuk and Gwangju FC on the 23rd was held as it was.
Although the Seoul World Cup Stadium was excluded from the venue for the third consecutive FIFA World Cup qualifying round, it is in a similar context that the K-League is held on the same lawn.
If the grass is not good at all, we should immediately recognize that it is an "emergency" and make every effort to ensure proper soccer is played, but we have been self-defense, saying, "If it's good, it's the best, but even if it's bad, there's something we can't help."
Even if the grass in front of the goal is dug up and the soil is visible, "Due to the nature of soccer, there is no choice in front of the goal where the goalkeeper often dives."
On the other hand, the grass of advanced countries in overseas soccer is "of course" the best. Since the front of the goal post where a goalie dives a lot is an important spot that is directly related to a goal, he or she manages it more carefully.
Now, we need to judge the impact of grass on soccer more carefully and conservatively and recognize that good grass is natural.
"In a foreign country, grass is the best in a stadium or a training ground. I have never imagined anything else," said Kim Jin-su, who played in overseas leagues such as Hoffenheim (Germany) and Alnasr (Saudi).
"In the U.K., we think about the next move when the ball comes," said Lingard of Seoul, a former member of the English Premier League. "However, in the Korean grass, the ball is so plump (because of the uneven ground) that I am busy thinking about 'I have to catch it well.'"
Lawns are related to the development of the soccer industry as a whole. If the grass is not good, a proper game cannot be played. Players are injured, and fans do not enjoy high-quality contents. "Fans who came to the stadium today must have misunderstood about soccer," a soccer official who watched the match between Seoul and Gimcheon lamented.
Messy grass means losing both players and fans, which in turn causes a huge loss to the soccer community as a whole.
A national soccer team that plays with such grass as soil cannot achieve good results. The Korea Professional Footballers Association also said, "In order for Korean clubs and national teams to increase their competitiveness in international competitions, it is essential to improve the basic playing environment."