You are killing careers with artificial pitches – Sammy Kuffour flares up

Legendary Ghanaian footballer Samuel Osei Kuffour has pooh-poohed claims by the government that it is solving the infrastructure problems in the sports sector with the construction of artificial pitches across the country.

Dubbed ‘One Constituency, One Astroturf’ government has embarked on an ambitious project to construct an artificial pitch in each of the 275 constituencies as it seeks to address the problems in the sports industry.

The construction of these pitches is being undertaken by construction firm, Wembley Sports Construction and has seen them construct pitches in Madina, Kyebi, Walewale among others.

Speaking at a press conference organized by pay TV firm StarTimes as part of the Bundesliga Football School programme, the Bayern Munich legend suggested that the building of synthetic pitches rather than natural grass is an unwise decision.

Sammy Kuffour wondered why Ghana is not learning from countries like Germany, England and Spain who have abandoned the use of artificial grass.

He enumerated a number ills associated with artificial pitches which he reckons will affect the development of players in the long term.

“For me it’s s not the best. How many young players are going to get injured? I tell you it’s not the best for the young players. The Europeans, they have stopped using it so why are we bringing it here?”

On whether the astro pitches are not an improvement on the existing grass-less pitches dotted across the country, Sammy Kuffour said “If we can do better ones then we do better ones because it’s not just doing astro pitches. How many young ones will get injured. Because the field doesn’t move you, you stay. The people here don’t think.

Interestingly some key personalities in the country have in the past declared support for artificial pitches.

One of such personalities is the Black Stars coach Kwesi Appiah who last month commended Wembley for the synthetic pitch constructed at Madina.

“We thank the managers for the high quality pitch and the Zongo Ministry for this initiative. This will help us so much in the game against São Tomé and we believe it will power us to victory. This is a world class astro turf with floodlights to even play at night. Indeed, we need a lot of this in every district to unearth more talents at the grassroots.

Why English clubs don’t use artificial pitches

In England, there have been discussions over the use of synthetic pitches with the players and coaches always kicking against it.

Last year, the Professional Footballers’ Association carried out a survey that involved over thousand players in the various divisions of English.

The result of the survey corroborates Sammy Kuffour’s claim that the pitches are not good for football.

According to UK news portal The Independent, 94% of players and coaches interviewed, kicked against it.

The PFA’s assistant chief executive, Simon Barker told The Independent that players have three primary concerns: increased fatigue, increased likelihood of injury (and the subsequent shortening of careers), and the more direct style of football that artificial surfaces are perceived to promote.