QPR's "Controversial Plastic Pitch" Gets Remembered as England Play Russia on Artificial Turf!

-
England being forced to play Russia on an artificial Pitch in a Euro 2008 Qualifying game brings various press memories of former articial pitches in England and of course to QPR's "Controversial plastic pitch" in the early and mid-1980s!.

David Ornstein,The Guardian - Thursday July 12, 2007
Artificial pitch in Russia blocks England's route to Euro 2008
England's hopes of qualifying for Euro 2008 will rest on how they cope with an artificial pitch, after it was announced last night that their penultimate qualification match against Russia will be played on synthetic grass. ...
One former FA executive admitted the governing body would approach the match with "understandable apprehension" given the "bad memories they have" of the artificial pitches used by clubs such as Luton Town, Queens Park Rangers and Preston North End in the 1980s. Balls would bounce comically high, severe injuries were common and sliding tackles were a health hazard, but the technology has now improved considerably. England are expected to practise beforehand on similar surfaces, such as that at Manchester United's Carrington training ground....
Guardian

The Times - July 12, 2007
New breed of synthetic surfaces soon bounces back into fashion Will Pavia

In 1981, when Queens Park Rangers dug up their grass pitch and installed an artificial one, it was hailed as a great leap forward for English football. Three other clubs followed suit, each confidently predicting that the synthetic surface represented the future of football, a future free from grounds-men and the vagaries of living grass.

By 1988, however, the pitches were widely reviled by all except the handful of clubs who played their home matches on them. They were banned in England that same year.

Lately, however, with a new generation of fibrous turf, the synthetic pitch is making a comeback.

The turf upon which England will play Russia on October 18 is said to be a far cry from the “plastic pitches” of two decades ago. Instead of the hard green and sandy carpet, which so tore at the legs of players making sliding tackles, pitches have long synthetic blades of grass. These are woven into a “mud” of sand and rubber particles, designed to give way under foot and to stop the football bouncing like a rubber ball. Players may wear the same studs as for a game on grass...
Once again, plastic pitches are being referred to as “the future of football”, this time by Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, who suggested that the 2010 World Cup be played on artificial grass after complaints about the pitches of the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany.
Objections are being raised by players, however. The Professional Foot-ballers’ Association has said that studies conducted on whether the surface is more likely to cause injury have been too short term to be conclusive.
“Obviously the modern synthetic pitches are far better than the ones I remember playing on, but players still don’t like playing on them,” Tony Cascarino, the former Chelsea and Ire-land striker, said. “Players do seem to get injured on them more easily. They fear that your footing is less secure and it’s harsher on your joints.”
...“Ultimately, players just don’t seem to like playing on them,” Cascarino said. “It will give the Russian team a psychological edge. England will just have to try to adapt to it quickly.”
He recalled playing against the synthetic pitch teams of the 1980s – Queens Park Rangers, Luton Town, Oldham Athletic. “The bounce was unpredictable, you couldn’t even catch it,” he said. “Oldham were just impossible. They had a fantastic home record. They were so well adjusted to playing on it.”
In the same decade, a paper by Stephen Clarke and John Newman, investigating whether there was such a thing as a home advantage, concluded that it was particularly strong for clubs with artificial pitches. Perhaps the Russians had read it. The Times

Daily Mail - We’ve tried plastic and we didn't like it By SIMON CASS - The much-maligned plastic pitch has come a long way since Queens Park Rangers, Luton, Oldham and Preston opted to dig up their grass surfaces in the 1980s.

It is just as well given former QPR manager Jim Smith's memories of the artificial turf at Loftus Road.
QPR were the first club to introduce a plastic pitch in 1981 and Smith, who managed the side for three years from 1985, said: "It was a nightmare.
"It was a false game, I knew exactly when we were going to score. It was like robots playing. You got carpet burns and very bad backs if you played on them long enough. The likes of ourselves who played on it regularly had a big advantage."
That proved the case in 1985 when Manchester United visited Luton after winning their first 10 League games and were held to a 1-1 draw.
The surfaces were outlawed in 1988 but with the advent of new technology, FIFA and UEFA are adamant that unfair advantages are a thing of the past. FIFA president Sepp Blatter described the surfaces as "the future of football" and clubs in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Russia are now using them.
Dunfermline played on one for two years in the Scottish Premier League before protests from Rangers and Celtic forced them to revert to grass in 2005.
SV Salzburg's Bulls Arena, which will be used in Euro 2008 and where Blackburn drew 2-2 in the UEFA Cup last season, has an artificial pitch while FIFA is considering whether to use the surfaces in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Mail

The Sun - Life's a pitch for Three Lions
By MARK IRWIN July 12, 2007
"...Former Manchester United midfielder Wilkins added: “Russia’s players will be used to the conditions. I played on artificial surfaces at QPR and Luton and those pitches were like concrete.” The Sun