{"id":605714,"date":"2026-04-14T06:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605714\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:40:13","slug":"how-dry-or-wet-should-a-football-pitch-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605714\/","title":{"rendered":"How dry or wet should a football pitch be?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the moments after Arsenal\u2019s 2-1 defeat against Bournemouth on Saturday, Viktor Gyokeres cited the pitch\u2019s condition as a contributing factor.<\/p>\n

The Swedish striker mentioned he felt the grass was \u201ca bit dry\u201d towards the end of the game, adding that it \u201cdidn\u2019t help\u201d the goalscoring chances Mikel Arteta\u2019s side created. You could be forgiven for thinking he was talking about Bournemouth\u2019s turf \u2014 gamesmanship around football pitches is nothing new<\/a> \u2014 but the dry pitch he was discussing was at the Emirates Stadium, where Arsenal have only lost twice all season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (Bournemouth) have good players and made some good combinations,\u201d Gyokeres told the BBC\u2019s Match of the Day after the defeat, which gave Manchester City more than a sliver of hope that the Premier League title race is on<\/a>. \u201cBut we need to do better. We had some chances in the end. The pitch was a bit dry<\/a>, which didn\u2019t help. I\u2019m very confident. We don\u2019t need to get stuck too much on what happened today. We need to look forward and be positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s views on wetness or grass height, the condition of a pitch can be contentious \u2014 as Xavi found out when a meme was made of him<\/a>. The former Barcelona head coach is called a jardinero, or a gardener, by some opposing fans and Madrid-based media outlets.<\/p>\n

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and his old nemesis Jose Mourinho would often have opposing views on how a pitch should be prepared.<\/p>\n

\u201cExperience will also tell you that if you ask 10 players if the pitch is wet enough, five of them would say yes and the other half would say no,\u201d Lee Jackson, Sheffield Wednesday\u2019s head groundsman, who is talking generally, tells The Athletic. \u201cIt is trying to get that balance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is always the same for both teams. As the home team, you always prepare it how your team wants it and that doesn\u2019t always suit the away team. It can be quite subjective when a player says if it was wet or dry enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always say as groundsmen that the pitch is the easiest thing to blame because it can\u2019t answer back, whereas if you are blaming an individual for a mistake, then there is a right of reply. If you are trying to blame 7,500 square metres of grass, it isn\u2019t going to shout back.\u201d<\/p>\n

But how wet or dry should a soccer pitch be? And what difference does it actually make?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Viktor Gyokeres mentioned the dryness of the pitch after Saturday\u2019s match (Marc Atkins\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defining factor in that is how wet you can get it because you want it where the grass leaf itself is wet, but the pitch not too wet to make it heavy,\u201d Jackson, who worked at Manchester City, adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difficulty from a groundsman\u2019s perspective is you only have a 10-minute window from the end of the warm-up to the teams coming out and then you only have 10-12 minutes at half-time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson notes the coaches as being the \u201cbest people\u201d for a groundsman to liaise with, saying they act as a \u201cmouthpiece\u201d for the players, but concedes, due to myriad reasons including the climate and time, that there is \u201cnever a one-size-fits-all approach\u201d.<\/p>\n

Although the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the game\u2019s lawmaker, does not have a specific mandate on the length of grass, the general rule of thumb is that it should not exceed 30mm and it must be cut evenly. This is mandated by the Premier League and UEFA.<\/p>\n

When it comes to watering the surface, however, it is a different story.<\/p>\n

In the Premier League, the home team is not required to water the pitch, whereas in the Champions League, UEFA requires the home team to lay out their watering schedule at an organisational meeting before the fixture.<\/p>\n

European football\u2019s governing body also mandates that the turf has to be watered evenly and it should be finished an hour before kick-off. The pitch-watering schedule must be communicated by the home club at the organisational meeting and the regulations require it to be watered evenly and not only in certain areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, the home team can also opt to water it again between five and 10 minutes before kick-off and during half-time for a maximum of five minutes.<\/p>\n

Another experienced groundsman noted to The Athletic how this is always a difficult time of the year to perfect the pitch\u2019s water levels.<\/p>\n

It is getting warmer, which means the grass leaf can dry incredibly quickly \u2014 in some cases, within 15 minutes of kick-off \u2014 and the 12.30pm kick-offs, such as Arsenal\u2019s match on Saturday, only add to the climate-related complications.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are at the time of year when pitches are going to dry up very quickly, so getting it wet and keeping it wet is always difficult,\u201d Jackson explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could throw on as much water as you want and get it to a level where the coaches and players would be happy with it, but one thing you can\u2019t control is once that water has been turned off and the game starts, from minute one to 45, it is not going to be consistently wet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is such a complicated yet uncontrollable balance you are trying to achieve because of the consistency required in the modern game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the moments after Arsenal\u2019s 2-1 defeat against Bournemouth on Saturday, Viktor Gyokeres cited the pitch\u2019s condition as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,1614,13198,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-605714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-premier-league","12":"tag-soccer","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}