World Cup Final 2018 for SISGRASS

A glittering prize in world sport has been won by a modest British firm that dared to reinvent grass for the 21st century.

When one billion people tune into the 2018 World Cup final in Moscow’s historic Luzhniki Stadium, the floodlit green battlefront on which two nations will fight for sport’s most valuable trophy will be more than it seems - for the grass will be impregnated with more than 150 miles of plastic.

The SIS Pitches company of struggling Maryport will be responsible for that flawless rectangle of turf and today its 39 employees are celebrating their coup, which comes as welcome news for a county battered by devastating floods that rose threateningly within yards of their factory doors only a fortnight ago.

What drew World Cup organisers to SIS Pitches’ door was a new grass innovation known as SISGRASS - a reinforced natural turf system. It offers a safer, softer surface that protects players from injury, but with up to five times the playing time of natural grass alone. A brilliant hat-trick is produced by the stunning appearance, which fans cannot distinguish from all-natural grass.

“The ball hasn’t been leather for a long time and now the grass isn’t quite what it seems, but it actually improves the game,” enthused SIS CEO George Mullan last night.

“It’s the first time a World Cup final has been played on anything but all-natural grass and it’s like a dream for us as a company and a community. We have come so far to get this system to the pinnacle of world sport”.

Chelsea, Besiktas, Hull City FC and the FA’s prestigious centre of excellence at St. George’s Park have rushed to install SISGRASS since its release last summer, with other clubs poised to make announcements.

The patented system was created after SIS Pitches approached Dutch engineers to design a ‘giant sewing machine on tracks’. This machine methodically crawls across a pitch implanting, or ‘stitching’, laser guided precision rows of more than 240 million lengths of two-tone green synthetic yarn 180mm deep into the sub-surface.
 
The yarn projects in tufts 20mm above the surface. After grass seed is sown on top, the growing roots naturally seek out and anchor onto the sub-surface yarn, building a reinforced turf that not even professional football or rugby players can easily damage.

“It strengthens the structure of the natural grass, making it stronger and more resistant to damage which means more games can be played on a pitch. It also drains more effectively. For a busy tournament like the World Cup it is perfect. “At the same time it is player-friendly. Our polyethylene fibre construction actually gives it a softer feel, with more consistency and greater traction than natural grass alone. That reduces injury risk and the bounce and roll is always even, so the players love all these features,” adds Mr Mullan.

SIS Pitches had to convince a host of international testing bodies that it’s new system works and was superior to ageing rival grass alternatives.

That meant submitting to stringent accelerated wear trials by rigorous independent testing consultants STRI. They revealed the new surface beat unreinforced grass for damage resistance, traction, grass cover and shear strength. A SISGRASS surface can be used between 3-7 times longer depending on weather without damage and can be laid in just one week.

The company’s tufting shopfloor aims to produce record amounts of pristine artificial grass this year - custom designed for a staggering array of sports, schools, public spaces and also residential gardens.  SIS Pitches have been installed at more than 120 stadiums and training grounds across the world, from Russia to Dubai.
 
SIS Pitches was chosen for the World Cup final ahead of strong competition from Russian and a host of other international firms, having previously demonstrated its pedigree at the Luzhniki Stadium, under difficult conditions.

Mr Kobal says: “We also laid the Champions League pitch for the historic all-English 2008 Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea, which was also at the Luzhniki Stadium.

“At that time there was a synthetic pitch at Luzhniki, like at many stadiums in Russia, because of the long winter. But the final had to be played on grass, so we re-laid the pitch with grass just for one game.

“SIS was chosen at the very last minute and it was a race against time. In the end we had to go outside Russia for the right kind of grass and it involved bringing 22 refrigerated trucks of turf from Slovakia.  They trust us and that helped land the World Cup for SISGRASS.”

Work has already begun to transform the Luzhniki. Building work on the stadium will last 12 months, while SIS Pitches designs the complex pitch subsurface structure ready for the SISGRASS installation.  Due to the brutal Russian winter, it will involve a system of undersoil aeration, drainage, irrigation and even heating to allow the pitch to be used all year. A custom designed, reinforced fibre-sand rootzone will be laid, stitched with yarn and then seeded to be ready by May 2017 in time for the Confederations Cup.

The stadium will then close for a year until the World Cup, where it will also be used in the opening match, featuring the host nation. The stadium will then become home to the Russian national team. The company has also signed a two-year deal to maintain the pitch.