A football field is the temple of any footballer in the world. It is what made them who they are and it is what will continue to shape them in their coming years.
A sports journalist by the account name of @HarJournalist on X displayed the grass being used at the BC Place stadium in Vancouver, Canada and fans genuinely could not contain themselves.
The stadium was a part of Canada’s arsenal of stadiums for the World Cup. The specific stadium hosted various matches such as group stage matches between Canada vs Qatar and New Zealand vs Belgium while also hosting RO32 and RO16 matches such as Switzerland vs Algeria and Colombia respectively.
The same stadium was also used during the 2015 Women’s World Cup featuring artificial grass, specifically PolyTan LigaTurf RS PRO CoolPlus.
However, FIFA demanded natural grass in the stadiums as a part of their strict guidelines for the upcoming World Cups including 2026. BC Place was fitted with a custom hybrid grass pitch. The natural turf was grown locally in the Fraser Valley by Bos Sod Farms in Abbotsford and laid over a synthetic mesh/sand base to meet FIFA’s playing surface standards.
The grass being used at the stadium appeared to look off to the fans. Fans noticed how the stadium was using elongated artificial grass used in Turfs instead of using real grass and maintaining it like how other stadiums do.
Jesper Sørensen, the current manager for Vancouver WhiteCaps, for whom the stadium is home stadium, added how much of an embarrassment this is.
Fans were especially not happy with how fake grass was being deployed for pro players who are used to playing an actual pitches.
Fans can only hope this brings out a change for teams and stadiums used artificial grass instead of natural one.
