Fergie & Wenger criticise state of the Wembley pitch

The chorus of disapproval about the state of Wembley's pitch is being led by the two losing managers from the weekend's FA Cup semi-finals that took place there, but there is genuine concern that the playing surface at England's premier football venue is in such a poor condition.

Arsene Wenger, manager of Arsenal who lost 2-1 to Chelsea at the national stadium on Saturday, yesterday continued to criticise the pitch, which became visibly cut up within the first ten minutes of the first semi-final. "It's handicapping the national team because do you think Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney don't want to play on a good pitch?" said the Arsenal manager. "Of course they want to play on a good pitch."

Wenger went on to rank the playing surface as the "21st" in the Premier League ie worse than every other, and claimed that it wasn't even flat and bore closer relationship to the less-manicured pitches of "20 or 30 years ago". The Frenchman, whose team takes on Liverpool tonight in the Premier League, concluded reasonably that after spending £800m on the stadium, it shouldn't be too much to expect a good pitch there.

Sir Alex Ferguson was for once in agreement with Wenger, after watching his hotch-potch of a side crash out on penalties to Everton in the second semi-final on Sunday. Ferguson claimed his team selection, which saw star attacking talents Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney both rested, had been influenced by the state of the pitch.

"When I saw the pitch, I had reservations about it and that's why I feel I definitely played the right team," the Scotsman said. "I was told that they have events like speedway there, so with it being used for so many other things, they have to keep pulling the pitch up and then put a new one down. If you are changing the pitch all the time, it is difficult for it to bed down. That's why it looked slow. It was spongy and dead."

Ferguson's comments about the other activities that Wembley is used for hits the nail on the head, as the Football Association is forced to rent its blue chip venue out to help pay off the massive debts it incurred in building the national stadium. The FA has accepted that there are concerns about the state of the playing surface and has vowed to take action before the run of matchs at the season's end that will include play-offs, the FA Cup and England national games.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYINGMatt Dickinson, the Times: In addition to 18 football matches, the rugby league Challenge Cup final and an American football game, the stadium will host a dozen pop concerts and 12 corporate kickabouts this year. The FA is confident that a new sand-and-soil pitch will bring a dramatic improvement next season. Until then the centrepiece of a £757m, seven-year project will remain an embarrassment. If the FA cannot get the grass right, why build a national stadium in the first place? ·