Freebie Friday: Should 3G pitches now be allowed in the Football League?

Like 3 up 3 down, its time for the discussion

Welcome to the Friday Freebie! If you’re new to www.footballwriting.co.uk, welcome and this is the free for all piece coming at you every week giving you an idea of what you find behind the paywall alongside a lot of football watched.

As I often mention there is never a shortage of topics when it comes to non-league football, sometimes enough if I’m honest to write a piece every day of the week. Today however, we’re focussing on the red herring which hits clubs when they want promotion to the Football League, the 3G pitch.

For those who are a little unsure what we’re talking about, it’s an artificial surface which allows multiple use 24/7 for any club or facility that has one. There are probably plenty of you that remember the very first of these ‘plastic’ surfaces back in the 1980’s, and were actually used by Football League clubs for competitive games at Luton, QPR, Oldham, and Preston North End.

When you look at what these surfaces are like today, those back then were sub-standard compared with now, but as with a lot in life things move on and improve, they synthetic surface being no different.

Understandably there was a lot of reservation when clubs began to look at laying one of these new types of surface for first team games, but the benefits of them fully began to outweigh the cons of not being on grass.

The game itself is of course awash with money and has been for over 20 years, but while some filters down to grassroots level there has been an increasing need to maximise revenue as time goes on.

Having an artificial surface opens up income streams like never before, use not just for football but for some hosting concerts and even fun days and of course inviting the community to share the space.

Games are almost at a 100% chance of never being postponed unlike a grass surface, wonderful if you want to get that edge in a promotion race or just trying to complete the season in a timely manner and avoiding a fixture pile up after the sometimes lean winter months.

But with these surfaces being as good as they are now, why do non-league clubs have to rip them up and replace them with grass once again if they win promotion to the EFL from the National League?

It’s a strange concept when you consider FIFA have no issue with international games being played on them nor UEFA with European competition being allowed likewise.

Is there a thought that playing on a 3G surface gives home teams an advantage? Quite possibly, but then the flip side is surely the others have an advantage being on grass! I don’t have a figure for how many sides probably spend their training nights on these surfaces but I imagine it to be quite high with a lack of grass pitches maintained by others rather than clubs themselves.

From my own experiences of games watched between the National League right down to the County League levels there doesn’t appear to be an advantage to those whose home pitch is a 3G surface.

For Sutton Utd, they actually had to find a lot of alternative venues when promoted after having to tear up their surface and replace it with grass, likely they’ve lost money after promotion.

Bromley have a plan to move their artificial surface to beyond their main stadium should they move upwards, for others it’s not an option. Maybe there is a lack of forward thinking from their Football League counterparts or just stuck in the mud opinion from days gone by, similar to the discussion of three promotion and relegation places.

Clubs in League One and Two can’t all be fully solvent and likely to be a few sailing very close to the wind, while the cost of a surface isn’t cheap the long term benefits and revenue streams would greatly help some and bring communities closer to their football clubs, after all in 2023 time the Football League moved forwards.