PFA Pitch Rating System: Brisbane Roar is A-League’s Best at Round 10

In a move to help ensure first class football pitches and player health and safety, Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) introduced the PFA Pitch Rating System at the start of the 2009/2010 A-League season.

 

In a move to help ensure first class football pitches and player health and safety, Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) introduced the PFA Pitch Rating System at the start of the 2009/2010 A-League season.

The system calls for the captains of visiting teams to evaluate the A-League pitches each round based on their overall quality, hardness, pace and smoothness.  Players give each field a mark out of 5 on all 4 criteria.  The benchmark is the standard required for “top flight professional football”.

After 10 rounds of A-League football, the players have rated Brisbane Roar’s Suncorp Stadium as the best pitch in the league, closely followed by Adelaide United’s and Central Coast Mariners’ home fields.  With these fields all averaging 4 and above, there can be little doubt that the playing surfaces are of a very high quality.  Of added interest is the achievement of Suncorp Stadium given the demands that rugby league places on that multipurpose venue, especially early in the A-League season.

 

 

At the other end of the scale are Melbourne Victory’s Etihad Stadium, Newcastle Jets’, Energy Australia Stadium and Gold Coast United’s Skilled Park.  It is no suprise that Etihad is rated the poorest overall pitch as Victory coach, Ernie Merrick, after Melbourne’s round 6 loss, labelled the pitch a “disgrace” and said that his team “would be better [playing] in the car park”.  These multipurpose fields all averaged less than 2.5 (or below 50%), raising serious questions as to whether they are being adequately prepared for top flight football.  The players are concerned that they play unevenly and inconsistently, exacerbating the risk of poorly timed and high tackles being laid.

Positive features of the playing surfaces are also coming to light.  Perth Glory’s Members Equity is highly regarded by the players for its smooth surface and softness.  The pace of Sydney FC’s Sydney Football Stadium is seen as being the best in the A-League, endorsing the club’s practice of insisting on watering the surface before kick-off.

The results show that while some clubs are meeting the standard required for top-tier professional football, others need to be improved in order to ensure player health and safety.  Additionally, excellent pitches provide players with the opportunity to express their technical skills and provide a more entertaining spectacle for A-League fans.  It will be interesting to see if and how the players’ views change over the course of the season, as the hot summer months kick in and the demands of competing football codes give way in the multipurpose stadia.

Brendan Schwab is the Chief Executive & General Counsel of Professional Footballers Australia (PFA).  He also chairs the Asian division of FIFPro, the world players’ union.