It’s time for Scottish Premiership to bin plastic pitches…
The nuisance that is artificial surfaces are in the news again this week with a recent report suggesting that the plastic surfaces could be just one step away from being banned from the top flight in Scottish football.
According to reports the SPFL’s Competitions Working Group are debating a ban on such on synthetic pitches and will soon make a formal recommendation to the league board to start a motion to rid the Scottish Premiership of these dreadful surfaces.
A resolution proposing their removal is expected before the end of next season and the group are planning a vote between the twelve top flight clubs and believe a 9-3 majority will be enough to rid the top flight of the unpopular surface.
It’s not a secret that the majority of football supporters, coaches and players are against the artificial turfs. Of course sides such as Livingston and Kilmarnock currently deploy such surfaces, but the Ayrshire side have announced that they will be reverting from grass the season after next, so such a vote could be overwhelming in binning the hazarded pitches.
You may recall Brendan Rodgers in his first spell as Celtic manager saying that he’d never seen a good game on a plastic pitch and that is often overlooked as a telling factor. If the games are never any good why would you buy a season ticket and put yourself through that down at Rugby Park or over at the Livingston stadium. It’s no coincidence that both struggle to get bums on seats, especially Livingston who appear to be heading for the Championship anyway as they are currently adrift at the foot of the table.
Let’s hope this happens as the experiment has failed and artificial surfaces have no place in the top tier of Scottish football. There is a valid argument that these surfaces are fine for semi-professional football at best. But for the Scottish Premiership these plastic pitches hold back the quality of football, they are dangerous to the players and now it’s time for them to be binned once and for all.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
Watching the highlights of the recent cup matches I was surprised at how good some of the artificial surfaces were at lower league clubs.
It really does shame Killie and Livi that they don’t even have a decent level of artificial surface when minor clubs can afford them.