As we welcome the start of a new Premier League season in England, we are now just a few months away from kick-off at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

While the tournament might not get under way until mid-November, preparations for the tournament have been taking place, not only over the spring and summer, but for a number of years.

Bernhard and Company, in collaboration with Aspire Turf Management, has been responsible for providing turf management solutions – utilising its full armoury of products and services, from 11 sets of grinding machines to SubAir systems installed at all eight stadiums – in order to create beautiful playing surfaces that can stand up to the very highest levels of scrutiny on the world stage.

We caught up with Steve Wilson (Global Business Development Manager, Bernhard Turf Technologies) to find out more about the planning processes, as well as the challenges that he and his team have faced in preparing eight stadiums and 110 practice fields for the arrival of football’s greatest stars. He also explained why this World Cup may have come with the toughest brief that a maintenance crew has ever faced at a major tournament.

“This World Cup is particularly unique, in the sense that there will only be eight stadiums used during the tournament. I believe this might be the fewest ever. For example, in Russia there were 12 stadiums used. So, there is around a 30% reduction in the amount of turf, which actually increases the stress levels on the grass significantly.

“That combination potentially makes it one of the toughest briefs ever received in terms of maintaining a fleet of World Cup stadiums during a tournament. To provide some context, there are five or six stadiums that are hosting six matches over a 10-day period. This means that on more than one occasion, they will host games on back-to-back days. That is not only extremely demanding from a logistics perspective, but also very demanding on the pitches that the players will perform on. In comparison, most Premier League stadiums, or other globally recognised stadia, might host a game once a week, or even less, on average.

“In order to deliver the best possible playing surfaces in each stadium, and on the practice pitches, there has been a full turf management package installed, including Bernhard and Company grinding machines, SubAir, stitching, and pitch lights. Firstly, with the grinders, I genuinely believe that without those, the team on the ground would not be able to pull this off with so many games in such a short window. With the significant number of matches and limited number of stadiums, it is critical that the grass is cut cleanly so that it becomes more resistant to wear. The Bernhard grinding machinery is extremely quick and easy to use, which enables the sharpening process to be both accurate and efficient. Those elements are vital as the team manage the performance of over 100 pitches.

“What you would really notice if we didn’t have the strong, healthy turf that we have developed in Qatar, is the grass browning and thinning out. It would really start to dry out as the tournament progresses and then it would become very thin. When the grass becomes thinner, it can also get slippery to run on which can be dangerous for the players. There will also be effects on the game in terms of the way the ball will roll and bounce, which could be the difference between a goal being scored or not.

“The biggest stage of traffic over the pitches will definitely be during the group stages of the tournament. Those two weeks are just madness, with games every other day. With the grinders in place, we are going to be able to keep the mowers sharp and perfectly set, ensuring we give the grass a clean cut each time. When we cut the grass cleanly, it remains healthy, and requires less fertilisers and watering. Think about your skin. If your skin was cut with a scalpel during surgery which is very sharp, that will deliver a clean cut, and leave minimal scarring and recovery time. If you grazed your arm, or injured it by tearing the skin, that could lead to infection, and it would take a long time to heal. It’s exactly the same with turf grass, as it is a living tissue. If we cut it cleanly, it heals well, there is less chance of disease, and it becomes stronger and healthier.

“SubAir allows us to completely control the root zone of each pitch without disrupting the surface of the turf. By that, I mean we can control the levels of moisture, oxygen, and gas transfers in the subsoil. Traditionally (without SubAir), you would have to aerate, by punching holes in the surface, in order to manage the root zone. However, we now have the ability to manage it without ever touching the surface. This adds another level of safety to players, because we aren’t disrupting the surface that they’re running on, and it also allows the pitch to look much more visually appealing.

“A challenge that we have faced in programming SubAir in each stadium, is that each of the individual locations boasts its own unique climate conditions. Some of the stadiums have a root zone that dries very quickly, meaning the water runs through the soil quickly. So, those stadiums will run the SubAir system in pressure mode to help maintain the moisture level in the roots. That’s actually something that we learned in Qatar. Instead of gravity pulling the water through the soil, we are applying a counterforce with the SubAir pressure mode. Doing this allows the roots to stay moist for much longer and hold the correct percentages of moisture. This also allows us to save water, as we don’t have to apply such a significant amount to the pitch surface.

“Working in Qatar has really allowed us to test the SubAir product in an extreme environment, which has created a lot of learnings that we can take forward into future installations. There hasn’t been any change to the product, but it has allowed us to learn how we might be able to utilise it better in certain conditions. One stadium uses the SubAir system because it’s coastal, so there are salinity and salt issues. They used vacuum mode to pull the moisture through the soil which helps to lower the salt levels. There are a lot of unique requirements, even within stadiums that are a just a couple of kilometres apart.

“The pitches are in phenomenal shape, and with the healthiest turf possible, we are all set for a fantastic tournament where the playing surfaces will match the extreme high performance of the players.”

www.bernhard.co.uk