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Account Disabled
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: The Black Country
Posts: 8,827
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Opening ceremony now.
Quote:
England will send a member of manager Roy Hodgson's backroom team to inspect the pitch for Saturday's World Cup opener against Italy, with the head groundsman responsible for the surface admitting: "It is in bad shape."
Pictures have revealed dry, brown marks across the Arena Amazonia turf.
"I've walked around the north side of the pitch at the Arena Amazonas in Manaus. The pitch isn't in an ideal condition at that end but I would say it's not as bad as some reports make out - although I'm no expert.
"There are patches where the grass is parched - brown lines running across the pitch. A small amount of what appears to be sand is visible behind the goal line but I could not see if that was the case on the pitch itself."
"Frankly, Manaus is in bad shape," said Carlos Botella, head groundsman for the Royal Verd company which is responsible for the turf at Manaus.
"The maintenance has been complicated."
Botella added: "There are no roads. All the machinery and materials had to be brought by ship. There was no fertilizer and no seeds.
"Now we have put fertilizer down. We will increase the fertilizing process with biostimulants and seeds to try to get the most out of the grass."
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Bunch of clowns.
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