Chris Waters: Return of plastic pitches would be good news for smaller clubs

So proclaimed the legendary Brian Clough, who believed that the ball should be passed to feet instead of pumped in the air.

Note that Clough did not say: “If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he’d have put an artificial pitch up there.”

But plastic surfaces are on the way back in a move that may not have delighted Old Big ‘Ead.

From next season onwards, plastic pitches are to be permitted in every round of the FA Cup.

The move, announced last week by the Football Association, effectively ends a 20-year ban on their use in this country in major competitions.

Under present regulations, such surfaces cannot be used from the first round of the FA Cup onwards nor in the Conference and upwards.

However, the new rules mean that Premier League teams could theoretically play on them if they are drawn away from home to a non-league side.

Announcing the new measure, Alex Horne, the FA general secretary, explained: “Clubs are increasingly seeing the benefits of using 3G surfaces across the football pyramid and clubs who play on those surfaces can now retain home advantage.

“They are a very useful asset and capable of delivering 50-plus hours per week as compared to a natural turf pitch, which can deliver perhaps five hours per week.

“This is clearly an advantage for clubs, or communities, wishing to deliver a pitch with sustainable running costs. The value of 3G pitches has been clearly demonstrated during the recent wet weather, where leagues within the grass roots game have migrated to them to address fixture backlogs.”

Horne’s comments were echoed by Sports Minister Helen Grant, who is calling on Conference officials to allow 3G pitches in their competition – a move those officials rejected in January.

Grant has a personal interest in the matter; Maidstone United, who are in her constituency and currently flying high in the Ryman League, would be prevented from playing on their 3G surface if they were to win promotion to the Conference.

However, Grant insisted: “It’s not just Maidstone United that might benefit from such a move; smaller clubs up and down the country that already use these pitches would receive a boost, and I want to see more of them across our communities.

“I believe that allowing 3G pitches in the Football Conference would now be a sensible step, and I have held initial discussions with the football authorities to consider a change of the rules and will have further meetings over the coming weeks.”

Although the FA’s relaxation of the rules will benefit some minor clubs (the Premier League, incidentally, have no plans to introduce plastic pitches as clubs have sufficient resources to provide top-class grass surfaces), the long-term implications are intriguing.

If the move works well in the FA Cup, it could herald a sea-change in attitudes to artificial surfaces to the extent that they could ultimately become widespread. Such pitches are already commonplace on the continent, where they have been used for international games and Champions League fixtures, and it is surely only a matter of time before England follows suit. At present, there are said to be only around 600 good quality artificial pitches in this country, but the FA are working hard to increase substantially that number.

As something of a sports traditionalist, I must confess that my initial reaction to the FA’s decision to bring back plastic pitches was one of concern.

I am old enough to remember when they were used in the 1980s by four football League clubs – QPR, Luton, Oldham and Preston – and retain images of how the ball would bounce high over players’ heads and reduce matches to pantomime.

But times have changed and players no longer have to wear trainers and tracksuit bottoms for fear of carpet burns, while a little research reveals that modern artificial surfaces resemble real grass.

The key, in my opinion, is consistency in terms of the quality of the artificial surfaces and the integrity of the tournaments in which they are used, for we do not want one team to have an unfair advantage over another, as was previously the case.

As ever, it all boils down to brass, and although I am naturally hostile to any change motivated mainly by money, there is much to be said for easing the financial pressure on smaller clubs, for whom plastic pitches would negate the need for extra training facilities and enable them to rent out those pitches to the local community. Maidstone, for instance, will have paid off the installation costs of their 3G surface inside 12 months, while academy sessions on their pitch are nurturing young talent.

Even Old Big ‘Ead would have approved of that.

AND ANOTHER THING ....

MENTION of Brian Clough reminds me how the former Nottingham Forest manager would inspire through sheer physical aura as well as motivational acumen.

Clough was not built like the proverbial brick outhouse, but he was one of those people who could raise the fear of God with just one look or calculated stare. Which brings me on to Brendan Rodgers...

I don’t know about you, but the Liverpool manager has always slightly spooked me – even from the safe distance of watching him on television.

Like Clough, he is not a physically big man, but there is something about the Rodgers stare, the way that his eyes fix on those who are interviewing him, that betrays the inner streetfighter.

What a wonderful job the Northern Irishman is doing at Anfield. At 41, he is one of the game’s brightest young managers.

As one who has a soft spot for Liverpool (I blame it on the Liverpool satchel I was given as a child), I would like to shake him by the hand – but I wouldn’t want to cross him.