Football Pitch FAQ Introduction

There are many Frequently Asked Questions for the maintenance of football pitches, especially considering the range of soil types pitches are played on and the quality of pitch desired and expected.

Here are some of the more common ones, although many questions are actually strongly related to the same or very similar underlying problems, which are primarily drainage and soil compaction, overuse, and inadequate resources due to limited budgets.

The one essential activity to undertake before implementing any suggested improvements is to investigate the issue to find out what the real problem is rather than guessing the likely problem.

Inspect the pitch, carry out an analysis of the surface and take cores, measuring root and thatch depth, and have the soil tested for pH, particle size distribution, drainage potential (technically called hydraulic conductivity) and available nutrients (primarily phosphorus and potassium), as a minimum.

What is the ground cover like?

Is the grass mostly perennial ryegrass, or is annual meadow grass present in significant quantities?

Have details of maintenance activities undertaken recently and from last year, and also have this year’s and last year’s usage figures available.

Finally, don’t forget to gather weather data for the past few months to see how this might have influenced the situation.

The issue being experienced can then be more clearly related to the objective conditions found, although in practice there will be numerous contributory factors, but a few might be identified as being significant contributors to the problem.

The answers to some of the following, 20 common, FAQs can now be understood to be quite general in nature because all of the above factors needed for a thorough investigation and more informed opinion are not available, so these should be treated as indicative signposting of a possible solution only.