Tournament News

Soccer City in top shape

2010-07-06 12:48
Email | Print
Johannesburg's Soccer City, which will host Sunday's World Cup final. (AP)

Johannesburg - FIFA says it expects the pitch at Soccer City to be in top shape for Sunday's World Cup final.

The surface showed discolouration at the northern end of the Soweto stadium for the quarter-final match between Ghana and Uruguay but the situation has improved significantly since thanks to the use of germination blankets and supplemental growth lights.

"We have cancelled a number of training sessions during the tournament so that the pitch can be in the best possible condition," FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot said on Tuesday.

"We are not aware of any particular concern or worry about the state of the pitch for Sunday's final."

World Cup pitches in high-altitude Johannesburg and Pretoria have had problems with frost during the tournament while the surfaces in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth have at times had to be closed because of rain.

Despite the problems, the pitches at this year's World Cup are a vast improvement on the surfaces that teams had to deal with at the 2009 Confederations Cup, and so far there have been no major complaints from any of the 32 participating teams.

Read more on:    fifa  |  soccer city stadium  |  johannesburg

 

Comment on this story
9 comments
Add your comment
Comment 0 characters remaining
Live Video Streaming
Video Highlights
Sport Talk
  • How much do Afcon winners take home?
    The Confederation of African Football (CAF) released a statement this week boasting that the 2012...
  •  Updated: Hottest SWC WAGs

    Updated: Hottest SWC 2010 WAGs

    Logs
    P W PTS
    P W PTS
    P W PTS
    P W PTS
    P W PTS
    P W PTS
    P W PTS
    P W PTS
    Previous Results

    Date Home Team Result Away Team
    Vote

    World Cup 2010 is over and the country is returning to normal - but have you moved on yet?

    Twitter Follow Sport24 on Twitter

    Newsletters Sign up for Sport24's Morning Glory newsletter

    Blogs Yes your opinion counts. Get it out there

    WIN Enter and win with Sport24!

    Mobile Sport24 on your mobile phone - WAP, alerts, downloads, services

    BlackBerry Stay in the loop on your BlackBerry

    iPhone Latest Sport24 news on your iPhone

    Facebook "Like" Sport24's Facebook page

    TV schedule Plan your couch time with our searchable sport TV guide

    RSS Feeds Sport news delivered really simply.

     
    There are new stories on the homepage. Click here to see them.