More like this
Wembley stadium pitch row claims first casualty
The only way that the national football stadium can pay for itself is by hosting too many events to keep the pitch pristine
Sport as whore, part one," begins Simon Barnes provocatively in the Times. "They've sacked the Wembley Stadium groundsman, Steve Welch. This was because they had to sack somebody, and he was the only option. Hard cheese on Welch: he has to take the blame for a flawed policy instituted by the suits who put money first and everything else tenth."
The big problem with the national stadium is nothing to do with the horticultural intricacies of keeping a pitch in good condition, or of the grass seed used. "It's because football is among the many other things that are tenth on the list of priorities. The Sunday Times explained yesterday, deadpan, that the guiding policy of Wembley ensures that “the surface has never been ideal for football”.
This concept beggars belief, until one considers the true priorities of modern sport. "The problem with Wembley is that it cost a ridiculous amount of money: £750m, to be approximate. Having spent such dizzying sums, you need to get some of it back. So the stadium gets used for all kinds of other things."
Concludes Barnes: "I don't know about you but this strikes me as something of an error. It is an error in conceptual thinking. The stadium was conceived in grandiosity, and grandiosity now requires a constant game of financial catch-up." ·
