The real change in artificial grass that threatens modest teams: "Putting in a new one can cost 220,000 euros"
Modest football is better understood in places like Mieres, birthplace of Caudal Deportivo, the Spanish club with the most Third Division titles.. Every weekend, five games are played on its two fields, both municipally owned.. Just over 400 fans attend the first team, today in Tercera RFEF.. And among the most veterans, stories still circulate about those times when the footballers themselves, before the initial whistle, attached a roller to one of their cars to clean the playing field.. They were years of blood on the shin guards, balls like stones and boots oozing mud.
Today, however, in the field Eliseo Gutiérrez only smells of rubber. That of the artificial grass released in March 2021, for which the City Council paid 190,000 euros to Limonta Sport. “That investment exceeded our annual budget,” clarifies Óscar Sánchez, director of the Asturian club.. Today, only 30 months later, the future plans of Caudal Deportivo come up against Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2055, published on September 27 in the official journal of the European Union. A text that requires replacing, in the next eight years, the rubber filling of its synthetic grass. A real threat to Mieres and the more than 12,000 artificial grass installations in Spanish football.
«Here we have also just renewed our fields, so we are on tenterhooks. Let's see if they give us help, because the change seems very drastic and our budgets are very tight,” begins Tomás Martín, head of Sports at the Teruel City Council, in reference to the works at the Los Planos Sports City, inaugurated in December 2022. and in the Campo Luis Milla, released in 2019.
«The rolling is not the same»
«We agree with the idea of minimizing health risks, but the truth is that the alternatives that we use today do not offer the same result. I have examined several studies and the rolling of the ball is not the same,” adds Martín, in reference to cork, olive pits or coconut shells, the alleged future substitutes for rubber.. “The new materials have a very high cost,” concludes the municipal technician, without certainty even regarding the Brussels deadlines: “They say they expire in 2031, but I don't know if there will finally be moratoriums.”
What is, therefore, that cost that is so feared in Teruel and that the rest of the clubs and municipal corporations will have to face? The most accurate calculation is offered by Rubén Martín from RealTurf, the only Spanish company dedicated to artificial grass recommended by FIFA. «The average budget to renovate a playing field is around 200,000 euros. However, the change to cork will mean an increase in price of around 10%,” says Martín, technical advisor to the football department of the Valencian firm.
Since last Sunday, when inaccurate and alarmist information spread, Martín's phone has not stopped ringing.. However, his predictions for the coming years sound reassuring: «Between now and 2031, artificial grass will be able to continue being installed completely normally.. And in 2040 I am sure that it will still be played on rubber.
The aforementioned EU regulation that prohibits the manufacture and marketing of microplastics has been on the table of the Ministry of the Environment for two years.. However, the majority of clubs have lived oblivious to a reality that, even though it was known, they did not feel was a priority.. This is the case of Betis San Isidro, in the Madrid neighborhood of Carabanchel, which built its Old Dog Track field four years ago.
“We feel very lucky with this state-of-the-art grass, because the previous one was a disaster,” says Pablo García Rojo, green and white manager.. In any case, to clear up any doubts that might lurk, the manager planned to meet yesterday with Carlos Izquierdo, district councilor. “We depend completely on the City Council, even in simple maintenance tasks,” he admits.
Because synthetic grass, in theory, must be preserved by stretching the fiber, distributing the fillers and removing the famous rubber balls so that they do not pile up and cause injuries.. To do this, also on paper, brushes from very specialized machinery must be used.. However, day-to-day life is much more prosaic even in the FIFA Quality Pro facilities, the most prestigious seal.
Sometimes, regulations collide with the logic and reality of management
Today, only five courses have this approval in all of Spain.. And one of them is in Allariz. «We are an enclave of the Biosphere Reserve, with an environmental sensitivity beyond doubt, but sometimes the regulations clash with the logic and reality of the management of a town of 6,500 inhabitants, with 92 population centers, where in some “There are more streetlights than inhabitants,” emphasizes Bernardo Varela, deputy mayor in the Orense municipality.. In his opinion, Allariz's annual budget, below six million euros per year, could not withstand another shake-up due to the EU.. “We were not aware of any changes at the European level, but for a small council like ours it would mean an economic setback,” Varela concludes.
Another FIFA Quality Pro field is located in Martorell, where Eric García would begin his training before signing for Barça. «We have changed the oldest synthetic grass and installed another state-of-the-art. The Torrent de Llops Sports Complex is a relatively important facility, the most advanced in our area”, explains Rafael García, president of CF Martorell, which today competes in Group 3 of the Primera Catalana. This maximum approval, as confirmed by the Teruel City Council, is renewed annually, although the relevant fee was not paid to FIFA from the Mudejar capital.. “Here it made no sense to maintain what only serves as a symbol of excellence for a club, but not for a City Council,” reveals Martín.
«Sell your waste, very cheap»
The concerns of humble football, far beyond a seal, focus on the life cycle of grass, since its deadlines clash with those of the European Union. And while Brussels estimates a period that ranges between six and eight years, the clubs have already become accustomed to extending it to almost 15. “There is a lot of discussion about what a neighborhood soccer field needs versus a much more professional one, so there are alternatives for all types of levels,” says Dolores Romano, chemical substances policy manager at the European Environment Office. (EEB, for its acronym in English).
After numerous meetings with experts from FIFA and UEFA, the EEB official has had several dossiers on the table. “The one who protested the most was the tire recycling industry, because it was very cheap for them to crush and sell their waste to form the happy layer of rubber,” reveals Romano.. “These companies proposed that the fields be allowed to continue using and that an emissions limit simply be set.”. That is, no player could go off the pitch with the same clothes or boots to avoid contagion.. Of course, this was impossible in a neighborhood venue. It was completely unrealistic, due to the economic cost of maintaining the filtering systems and building retaining walls,” Romano emphasizes, recalling that there are already European cities, such as Hamburg, where microplastics from tires have already been definitively removed. .
As an epilogue to this journey, it is worth returning to Mieres and heeding the warnings of its directive. «To avoid knee injuries, our first team always wants to train on the new field, although I think these facilities should have much more maintenance,. They should come with a machine to repair what has come off and renew the rubber. Since the City Council cannot, we only have our work as volunteers, including that of the directors. Here, whoever shows up lends a hand,” confesses Sánchez. His last message of help perfectly summarizes the anxieties of Caudal Deportivo. “The field turned out very well, but without TV income we need extra help to maintain decent conditions.” .