FIFA request more Ransomes Jacobsen equipment at the World Cup

FIFA request more Ransomes Jacobsen equipment at the World Cup

By Peter Driver

Ransomes Jacobsen, a Textron Inc (NYSE: TXT) company, have been asked by FIFA to provide further turf maintenance equipment for the World Cup tournament beginning in June.

This followed an approach by football's governing body to Ransomes Jacobsen's German distributor, The Turf Care Co GmbH, to hire ride-on triplex mowers and turf utility vehicles to prepare further stadium pitches at the global spectacle.

Now, virtually all the stadium pitches, which were re-laid before the beginning of the tournament using 240,000 m² of new turf, will be prepared using equipment supplied by the Ipswich-based turf maintenance equipment manufacturer. This includes the spectacular Olympiastadion in Berlin, the venue for the final on 9th July.

The additional machines being hired to FIFA are five Jacobsen Tri-King triple cylinder mowers and three E-Z-GO MPT turf utility vehicles.

The Jacobsen Tri-King is a ride-on mower powered by a 19hp Kubota diesel engine and has a 1.8-metre cutting width. It produces a very high quality of cut and is ideally suited for producing the immaculate striped-effect demanded by the watching billions of football fans

The E-Z-GO MPT is a rugged utility vehicle and will be used for transporting personnel and equipment around the stadium complexes. It has an 11hp, 350cc petrol engine; can carry two people and has a tipping cargo bed which helps when unloading sand, soil, fertilizer and the like.

David Withers, managing director of Ransomes Jacobsen commented, "The FIFA World Cup is the highest profile sports tournament on the planet and the pitches are being prepared by equipment supplied from Ipswich. That should give all the staff here a great thrill and it's something which we can all be very proud about. They know that their efforts in producing some of the finest turf maintenance equipment available have been roundly recognized at the highest level of sport."

The stadia using Ransomes Jacobsen equipment are Berlin, Cologne, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Hannover; Kaiserslauten, Leipzig and Nuremberg.


The complete list of Ransomes Jacobsen equipment now being used at the World Cup venues is:

Hamburg 2 x Jacobsen T-Plex 185, 1 x Jacobsen TriKing 1900 D
Hannover 2 x Ransomes Mastiff, 1 x E-Z-GO MPT 1200G
Berlin 4 x Ransomes Mastiff, 1 x Ransomes Commander 3510, 1 x Jacobsen T-Plex 185
Dortmund 4 x Ransomes Mastiff; 1 x Jacobsen T - Plex 185
Gelsenkirchen 4 x Ransomes Mastiff, 1 x Jacobsen TriKing 1900 D, 1 x Jacobsen Fairway 250
Köln 4 x Ransomes Mastiff, 1 x Ransomes Motor 180D
Leipzig 1 x Jacobsen TriKing 1900 D, 1 x E-Z-GO MPT 1200G
Frankfurt 1 x Jacobsen T - Plex 285
Nürnberg 1 x Jacobsen TriKing 1900 D, 1 x Ransomes Motor 213D , 1 x Jacobsen Fairway 305, 1 x Jacobsen T - Plex 185
Kaiserslautern 1 x Jacobsen TriKing 1900 D, 1 x E-Z-GO MPT 1200G