EVEN EL TEL DIDN'T HAVE 3G SO GOOD!

I FIRMLY believe that the best way for Non-League clubs to position themselves at the heart of their local communities is to install 3G artificial pitches.

- Tony INCENZO

These playing surfaces can be used every day of the week and bring vital new income streams.

Before I analyse the advantages in detail with a couple of case studies, I want to address the fact that there is strong opposition to 3G from many people – particularly around the Football League.

EFL rules meant that Harrogate Town had to rip up their 3G and replace it with a grass pitch during the summer after winning promotion from the National League.

This is in spite of the fact that important World Cup, Champions League and FA Cup games have been played on 3G. So why do we have so much resistance to it in this country? I believe the reason for this is because football folk have very long memories! They can still vividly recollect the rumpus that arose when the first wave of artificial pitches were installed in England back in the 1980’s.

Queens Park Rangers were the notorious pioneers during the 1981/82 season. The first problem recalled is that QPR brazenly laid the ‘Omniturf’ pitch without seeking any approval or permission from the footballing authorities.

Terry Venables, who was manager at Loftus Road back then, once told me: “My chairman Jim Gregory had always been worried about the terrible problems we had with our original grass pitch. We couldn’t get the drainage right. Even on a fairly nice day, it would always be like a quagmire.

“Jim just didn’t know what to do. Whatever he spent, he couldn’t seem to solve the problem. So he said to me: ‘What about a plastic pitch?’ We chatted for a while and it was a big step forward. And he said: ‘There are no rules to say we can’t!’