The Perfect Pitch Part VII By William Ralston source The Guardian Amsterdam, June 19th 2021–The pitch held up perfectly. Towards the end of the match, Standley joined Frith in the tunnel, where they watched some of the final minutes together. They chatted about Raheem Sterling’s goal, proud of the role they had both played in…
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Plant science Part VI by William Ralston source The Guardian Amsterdam June 19th 2021–“By the time you start the championships, the plant is on a slow keel to dying because you’re starving it,” he said. But the surface can’t be too dry at the start, “because otherwise the plant will be dead before you get…
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Plant science is key Part V by William Ralston source The Guardian Amsterdam, June 19th 2021—The job can take its toll. Like goalkeepers, groundskeepers tend not to receive much credit when things go well, but are the first to be blamed if anything goes wrong. To Stones, it is a way of life rather than…
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Groundkeepers as much values as footballers Part IV by William Ralston Amsterdam June 19 2021–Preparations for the Euro 2020 pitches began more than two years ago. In the early hours of 25 April 2019, Dale Frith set off down the M6 to Wembley, where Uefa was gathering together its team of pitch experts for a “kick…
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Life or death Part III by William Ralston Amsterdam, 19 June 2021— More than just protecting players, there were TV viewers to think about. If the Premier League was to market itself as a slick global brand, it needed a product that looked good on television. Muddy, bobbly, patchy pitches would not do. Broadcasters began…
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The perfect Football Pitch Part II by William Ralston source The Guardian Amsterdam, June 19th 2021– When Pep Guardiola arrived at Manchester City in 2016, he asked for the grass to be cut to just 19mm, in line with the ultra-fast pitches he had demanded at his previous clubs, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. In the…
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The Perfect Pitch a dream Part I By William Ralston source The Guardian Amsterdam, June 19th 2021—It was a big moment for English football talent when Real Madrid poached Paul Burgess from Arsenal in 2009. After starting his career at Blackpool FC, Burgess had arrived at the north London club in 1999, rising to prominence…
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21 years ago at UEFA EURO 2000™, the Italian football star Francesco Totti kicked the legendary “Spoon” shot against the Netherlands. Now it’s time for him to apologize to his Dutch rivals in Amsterdam – with a lot of surprises and some Heinekens to celebrate that we’re finally together, to be rivals again.
Rio Olympics may be the last Olympics involving pure humans. We are entering a transhuman phase, where competitions among pure humans with limited capabilities will fall out of favor. In next few months we will see first such competition among transhumans. This is the future of sports! Lesser number of people watched the Olympics this…
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The Role of Southern of Brazil Amsterdam, 8 april 2021– Interview with Sander Van Stiphout, Director International in charge of transversal activities including innovation at Johan Cruijff ArenA. 1. Innovation means a lot of things to a lot of different people. What does innovation mean to you? Innovation for us means reaching business objectives. We are trying…
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