The company in charge of San Siro hit back at the UEFA chief who said the pitch wasn’t “up to the level it needs to be” for the Champions League Final.
Senior Match Operations Manager Keith Dalton was thoroughly unimpressed ahead of the May 28 clash between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.
“We are facing a lot of challenges to get this pitch up to the level it needs to be for the Champions League final,”
The company in charge of San Siro hit back at the UEFA chief who said the pitch wasn’t “up to the level it needs to be” for the Champions League Final.
Senior Match Operations Manager Keith Dalton was thoroughly unimpressed ahead of the May 28 clash between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.
“We are facing a lot of challenges to get this pitch up to the level it needs to be for the Champions League final,” Dalton revealed in a speech at the World Stadium Congress in Doha.
“The groundskeeper, with all due respect to him, is very junior but he is the only one with the technical expertise operating in that stadium.
“The others can hold a fork at best.”
“With regards to the declarations of a UEFA director, a match operations manager we’ve never seen at San Siro in the last three years of work towards the 2016 Champions League Final, it is clear that the content is not only untrue and not what was communicated to us officially by UEFA, but is also totally contradictory, as he stated later on that the turf can achieve perfection.
“This will happen thanks precisely to the work of the staff, co-ordinated by the San Siro groundsman, who is also the groundsman for the Lega Serie A and Serie B, with assistants who are absolutely suited in terms of quality and quantity with many years of experience and roles recognised on a national and international level.
“We remind people that the monitoring of the turf for the Champions League Final began with UEFA and its consultants last October with period valuations.
“As of today, the ranking has been 4.5 stars out of 5, set to reach 5 on May 28. The turf has also been tested by the delegate representing the Finalists, who judged it to be in good condition.
“If there were critical problems, the advice would’ve been to relay the turf, something that hasn’t happened in three years at San Siro during the season precisely because of the excellent level we have achieved, contrary to the situation had by other stadiums that hosted UEFA Finals.”