Managing professional soccer fields in Eastern Europe (2010 to present day) Phil Sharples Director of maintenance Support in Sport (SIS) Group Ltd Eastern Europe Eastern Europe Eastern Europe Starting from scratch!

The Overview –

- Introduce professional construction techniques

- Introduce professional management techniques

- Manage process and change perceptions How things were - pitches How things were - generally! Challenges then and now!

- Build and manage a ‘state of the art’ soccer complex for the owner of Qabala FC (Azerbaijan) - Build, manage and maintain soccer pitches for a FIFA World Cup Tournament (Azerbaijan) - Manage the stadium pitch for Galatasaray FC, one of the biggest soccer clubs in the World (Turkey) - Train staff to manage surfaces – from scratch! And lastly…. - Survive! On a personal and more importantly, mental level! Introduce professional construction techniques • Qabala FC

- Owner employed an ex-England and Arsenal player () to manage team.. - Commissioned a professional turf construction company to build pitches and model site.. - Employed professional field manager to manage the grow-in and maintenance In the beginning (2010) – Qabala FC

How things were… Qabala FC 2007 - One pitch - Poorly maintained - Lack of knowledge Qabala FC 2008 - Installed a 3G artificial pitch for main playing surface

Qabala FC 2010 the new complex The Dome

• Supported by air pressure alone.. - Designed for winter use - First totally air supported system in the country - Approximately 4500m2 playing area - Dynamic base construction - Powered (supply of air) by electricity or diesel powered engines The Dome Qabala FC 2010 Construction technique - Mid-May 2011 Construction technique Construction technique Construction technique Construction technique Construction technique Construction technique

Sand used for root zone

- 11.2% Greater than 1mm - 60.2% Coarse & Medium Sand - 20.9% Fine sand - 7.7% Fines less than 0.15

Construction technique Construction technique Construction technique 2.5 months later Difficult management – 420C + It’s easy growing grass eh! During the 2.5 months the grass was growing in on that pitch… Qabala FC 2010 New base layer Preparing.. Drainage and gravel install Laser grading of gravel raft Envelope? Under-soil heating install Connecting up Rolling after grading and seeding Ready to grow.. Quick overview - Qabala Growing in, *3 and *5 October 2010 Growing in *3 and *5 – March 2011 Things got worse Then they got better.. Quick overview - Qabala Pitch *7 Pitch *7 Maintenance operations begin..

By June 2011 – Things were pretty good!

It wasn’t all easy though… The club thought they could fix this themselves.. No problem!! Electricity spiking was a problem too! Quick tour of a FIFA event

Aims - To produce pitches for FIFA World Cup (U17 Ladies) - First tournament of this type in the country - Working with AFFA and FIFA via a company called FSM - Remit was to construct pitches, (SIS) re-turf pitches (SIS) and train staff to suitable level - I was the lead agronomist for the project The scope

Complete new build of pitch and stadium - 8km Stadium (majority of matches here) Half re-build of referee training pitch - The Sports Academy Complete rebuild of site; including stadium pitch and two new natural turf training pitches - FC Renovation and maintenance of three other training pitches - Neftchi FC, - Qarabaq FC Management of three stadium 3G artificial surfaces and four 3G artificial training pitches

Challenges

• Delays & Communication • Weather (pre tournament) • Lack of suitable machinery and turf equipment • Staff • Transport of equipment and scheduling • Location – Baku traffic • Pressure from both AFFA and FIFA Quick tour… before the tournament!

It was hard, it was hot, but we (myself and the construction team, SIS) were not going to be beaten…..we got to work! 8km stadium 8km stadium

8km stadium 8km stadium Onto the Sports Academy pitch Academy pitch (Referee) Academy pitch (Referee) Academy pitch (Referee) Academy pitch (Referee) Academy pitch (Referee) Academy pitch (Referee) Academy pitch (Referee) Academy pitch (Referee) Whilst all this was occurring, we also had other work to do, on all sites..

World Cup Begins.. Two match pitches were out of our control..

• Both performed badly, one of them was so bad …. I received a conference phone call one evening at 6pm from FIFA and the FA of Azerbaijan.. 1.5 days before first match • Instructions “Get to Xazar stadium ……. Fix the pitch!” • A 4 hour car journey later, with machinery and equipment following at 2am in the morning..

Emergency for USA! Lankaran! What followed was 48 hours of hell! Before After.. We turned it around… I say we, as it was a team effort Tournament was a success!

• FIFA very pleased with pitches • AFFA very pleased with pitches • President very pleased with pitches

• Success down to shear hard work of team • Great team work • Good attitude • Communication between team members

Management Summary

• Break / relieve compaction and introduce aeration • Introduce a top dressing programme ensuring growth allows for fast recovery • Apply seed more suited to environment (imported into country) • Introduce improved water management technique – more difficult when trying to grow seed in high temperatures! • Apply nutrient in granular and liquid forms • Halt applications of Ammonium nitrate and any previous management • Diagnose disease issues and treat with suitable chemical • Introduce pre-match and post-match repair techniques • Control all play on surfaces and rotate play • Educate AFFA officials – who control play and training on AFFA owned surfaces • Hand weeding • Site clearing around stadiums • Rotational, un-announced visits to each facility …. Keeps people on their toes! • Educate the staff of the reasons for managing turf and the implications of the tasks carried out • Train staff on the use of machinery • Keep staff motivated • Be strict with rules and always keep your word

Artificial surfaces Artificial surfaces

• Dalga Arena (3G Stadium) + 3 training pitches • Arena (3G Stadium) • Bina Arena (3G Stadium)

Not our work!! Nor is this… Construction shots - Bina Construction shots - Bayil After maintenance and during tournament Patterning experimented with.. After maintenance and during tournament Bayil Arena – Post tournament friendly game All artificial pitches eventually succeeded in reaching FIFA 2** accreditation Artificial or natural? Basic summary of presentation – From this.. To this… So, that’s about that then!

What about now? Galatasaray FC (Istanbul, Turkey)

And guess what, we’ve just started this… Thanks for your time and for listening

Phil Sharples [email protected]

Tel: +44 7854 981744 www.sispitches.com

[email protected] www.linkedin.com/in/philsharples