6 years, 104 matches and 1 standard: Delivering the pitches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup

On 11 June 2026, the biggest FIFA World Cup in history began at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca. As the opening ceremony gave way to the first match, six years of research and planning became reality.

Closing ceremony rehearsal. 

Across 39 days, 48 teams contested 104 matches in 16 stadiums across the United States, Mexico and Canada. Supporting the competition was the largest pitch operation ever undertaken for an international football tournament, encompassing the 16 competition surfaces and approximately 90 training pitches, including Team Base Camps, venue-specific training sites and the referee base camp.

For FIFA Senior Pitch Management Manager Alan Ferguson (below), the tournament marked the completion of the most extensive project of his career. It also carried particular personal significance. As a proud Scot, Alan was able to watch Scotland compete at a World Cup for the first time in 28 years while helping deliver the pitches on which the tournament was played.

The scale of the competition created more moving parts than any previous World Cup. In addition to the distances between venues and the challenge of operating across several time zones, the pitch team faced markedly different climates and growing conditions across the three host countries.

Five domed stadiums presented particularly demanding microclimates, while several venues ordinarily operated with synthetic surfaces and required temporary natural grass pitches to be installed specifically for the tournament. Achieving consistent playing characteristics demanded solutions that extended well beyond conventional pitch preparation.

Preparing for the unprecedented

The full tournament pitch project began six years out from the opening match. A pivotal moment came in 2018 when Alan met Dr John Sorochan of the University of Tennessee in an East London café. Those discussions helped establish a research programme involving the University of Tennessee and Michigan State University that became central to FIFA’s preparations for 2026.

A three-year programme was developed with universities, turf specialists and key infrastructure and equipment providers to investigate how FIFA’s pitch requirements could be delivered within different stadium environments.

Research covered specialist areas including vacuum and ventilation systems, irrigation, grow lighting and hybrid reinforcement. Particular attention was paid to temporary natural grass installations and the shallow profiles required when constructing pitches over existing synthetic surfaces or concrete stadium floors.

Shallow pitch profile trial - University of Tennessee. 

Establishing the research programme proved to be one of the most important decisions of the entire project.

“It is one thing getting something to work in a research environment, but another bringing it to life in the real world,” Alan explained. “Without the research programme at the University of Tennessee and Michigan State University, the pitch project would not have delivered the success it did.”

From research to tournament conditions

The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup provided the first major opportunity to introduce many of the technologies into tournament stadiums.

It also exposed the pitch team to the operational realities awaiting them a year later. Installation windows were particularly restricted, averaging between five and seven days, with the pitch at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami completed in four.

For 2026, several venues were able to complete parts of their installations six months before the tournament, allowing stadiums to continue hosting Major League Soccer fixtures while giving pitch teams additional preparation time.

The most critical period came between 4 and 18 May, when many of the 16 stadiums underwent their final transition into World Cup mode. Installations were carried out simultaneously across the continent as specially grown turf was transported from farms to venues.

Across the stadiums and training sites, approximately 300,000 square metres of custom-grown sod was produced. FIFA’s pitch team worked with nine sod farms across the three host countries.

Alan readily admits that he initially underestimated the importance and complexity of the North American sod industry.

“It became clear very quickly that the sod industry in the United States is big business,” he said. “Once I understood the level of multi-use at each venue, I realised how important the sod farmers would be to the project.”

After installation, the stadium grounds teams moved into the grow-in period, their final opportunity to refine the surfaces before the first match at each venue.

One standard across three countries

The wider operation behind the World Cup encompassed 645 official sites and welcomed more than 6.8 million spectators. Within that footprint, the responsibility of the pitch operation remained precise: every player had to step onto a surface meeting the same FIFA standard.

Much of the structure required to achieve that consistency had been developed years earlier through FIFA’s Global Pitch Management Framework, established in September 2018.

Sod Installation at the Hard Rock Stadium - Miami Stadium.

The framework brings together approximately 100 leading turf professionals from around the world and continues to grow as FIFA’s tournament workload expands.

Since its introduction, the team has delivered more than 1,000 matches across approximately 30 tournaments without needing to replace a stadium pitch once competition was underway.

The increased use of vacuum and ventilation systems, grow lighting and hybrid reinforcement has raised costs, but it has also allowed surfaces to withstand increasingly congested schedules while reducing the risk of a match being postponed or cancelled.

Building a World Cup pitch from scratch can cost approximately US$2 million and, in some stadiums, considerably more.

“The schedules are so intense and the international calendar is so crowded that the better the pitch quality, the lower the risk of a cancellation,” Alan explained.

Grass variety grow light trial - University of Tennessee.

Multiple providers, one objective

Hybrid reinforcement formed an important part of the final pitch preparations. Research had focused on how fibre could be installed successfully into both conventional constructions and the shallow profiles used for temporary pitches.

With 16 stadiums and approximately 90 training pitches to deliver, FIFA had always recognised that the tournament would require more than one provider.

Hybrid delivery across the 16 stadiums was divided between five providers and included shallow and standard-depth stitching alongside the HERO open-mesh backing system.

SIS Pitches completed six stadiums, with GrassMax, Tarkett and HERO each responsible for three. Limonta delivered the remaining venue.

Despite the different systems and contractors involved, every surface had to satisfy FIFA’s playing standards.

Hard Rock Miami - Scotland vs Brazil. 

More than football on the pitch

Preparing the surfaces for 104 matches represented only part of the challenge. The pitches also had to accommodate the ceremonies that have become an increasingly prominent part of major sporting events.

Opening ceremonies were held at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and BMO Field in Toronto. Every match also featured a pre-match ceremony and rehearsal, placing a further 208 scheduled activities onto the 16 stadium pitches.

The largest productions required weeks of preparation and two full dress rehearsals on the field of play, generally held four and two days before the match. Protective flooring was used to limit damage from performers, staging and equipment.

“I know they have a show to put on, but we have a game to put on as well,” Alan said.

Finding that balance occasionally required Alan to resist requests for additional access. Ahead of the final, the pitch still accommodated 13 hours of rehearsal during the week leading into match 104.

Shakira performs at the final half-time Show. 

The final challenge

The World Cup final introduced another first for Alan’s team: a live half-time show inspired by the spectacle associated with the Super Bowl.

Featuring five major artists and approximately 600 performers and crew, the production had to be installed, delivered and removed within the half-time interval of the biggest football match in the world.

“It was definitely one of the hardest things I have had to work into a matchday,” Alan said. “The World Cup final is the biggest game on the planet and more than enough to cope with. An American-style half-time show would certainly not have been at the top of my list of things to add.”

When the final whistle confirmed Spain as world champions for the second time, it also brought an end to a journey that had begun with venue discussions eight years earlier and developed into a dedicated six-year delivery project.

In the days that followed, many stadiums returned to their usual operations.

Some removed their temporary natural surfaces within 48 hours of hosting their final match, while others began exploring how hybrid technology could become a permanent part of their future business plans.

The physical legacy will differ from one venue to another, but the research, infrastructure and expertise developed through the project will extend well beyond the tournament. Across three countries, 16 stadiums and approximately 90 training pitches, the team had delivered one consistent standard without an in-competition stadium pitch replacement.

For Alan, though, the scale of that achievement was accompanied by something more personal. Scotland had returned to the World Cup after 28 years, match 104 had been completed and the largest project of his career was over.

“It was a mixture of emotions,” he said. “To be part of building and delivering the biggest sporting event there is, and to do it as well as the team did, is something we can all feel proud of!”