Green light for plastic pitches
PLASTIC pitches can return to mainstream English football next season after the Football Association ruled them permissible for use in the FA Cup.
QPR were the first of several clubs to lay a synthetic surface in the 1980s, but they are currently banned from the first round of the FA Cup onwards and in the top five tiers of English football.
Third generation, or 3G, pitches have become increasingly popular through the non-league pyramid to combat mass postponements due to inclement weather.
Such pitches are commonplace in Europe, including Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium which hosted the 2008 Champions League final won by Manchester United.