The Wembley pitch fiasco has reached the stage where heads will now roll if the surface lets the FA down again at their flagship FA Cup final on Saturday.
And judging by how it played last weekend during the FA Vase and FA Trophy finals, the 11th pitch laid since the stadium opened in 2007 is another duff one.
In the firing line will be the three personnel most responsible for administering the shambles - Wembley managing director Roger Maslin, director of operations Greg Gillin and Tony Stones from the Sports Turf Research Institute, who has led the ground-staff in the botched operation since former head groundsman Steve Welch was sacked over a year ago.
FA chairman Lord Triesman acknowledged the seriousness of the problem, saying: 'We knew how to get a good pitch but it slipped, for whatever reason, in the way it was being maintained. We shouldn't have let this happen and we will go back to having an exceptional pitch.'
The flawed maintenance operation isn't helped by the ridiculous chain of command involving Wembley executives, pitch consultants and pitch installers, through to hired ground-staff.
Wembley have also obstinately stuck to their doomed consultancy system, despite being advised to appoint a proper head groundsman, and have not kept up a promised dialogue with the Institute of Groundsmanship.
See the rest of the article on the following link:- Mail on Line
