{"id":829378,"date":"2026-07-28T16:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T16:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829378\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T16:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T16:14:10","slug":"sydney-olympic-stadium-slammed-by-poms-as-chelsea-play-pre-season-friendly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829378\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Olympic stadium slammed by Poms as Chelsea play pre-season friendly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Accor Stadium has come under fire after Chelsea played Western Sydney Wanderers in a pre-season friendly.<\/p>\n<p>Many were unhappy at the state of the pitch, with signs of grass deterioration in the middle of the field.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the biggest Aussie sports the best from overseas LIVE on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/kayosports.com.au\/en-AU\/welcome?extcamp=ncaeditoriallinkgeneric-edt-new-lnk-awr-grc-grc-kyo&amp;channel=nca&amp;campaign=fsacontra\" title=\"kayosports.com.au\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Fans claimed the pitch was not in suitable condition for a soccer game, with some bemoaning the heavy use the turf has come under this year.<\/p>\n<p>The Accor Stadium is host to several teams and events, both sporting and musical.<\/p>\n<p>Three matches were played at the ground over the weekend &#8211; South Sydney Rabbitohs vs Melbourne and Canterbury Bulldogs vs Warriors, with the Bulldogs Women also taking on St George Illawara.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe pitch doesn\u2019t look great at the Accor Stadium ahead of Chelsea\u2019s first pre-season match,\u201d said BBC journalist Nizaar Kinsella.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat stadium, not a great pitch, not really close to a sellout but should be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"poster-img\" src=\"https:\/\/content.api.news\/v3\/images\/bin\/d7c95c62f0e7f57e8e88ccd4c3e89b08\" data-sctrack=\"op-poster-img\" alt=\"Damning footage of cricket clicking scandal\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt Olympic Park, where Chelsea officially begin their pre-season tonight on an interesting pitch,\u201d added The Sun\u2019s Jack Rosser.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccor Stadium. Pitch has probably seen better days,\u201d commented The Times journalist Peter Rutzler.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWouldn\u2019t be a Chelsea pre season without playing on a bulls*** pitch anyways,\u201d wrote X user @_cfc20.<\/p>\n<p>While the Poms may be unhappy with the conditions, they will have to get used to it.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea will play at the Accor on Saturday against Tottenham in the Sydney Super Cup, with Spurs first taking on Sydney FC at the Allianz Stadium on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Read related topics:<a class=\"topic_tag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/topics\/sydney\" data-tgev-container=\"story-topic-links\" data-tgev-label=\"Sydney\" data-tgev-order=\"1\" data-tgev-metric=\"npv\" data-tgev=\"event10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sydney<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Accor Stadium has come under fire after Chelsea played Western Sydney Wanderers in a pre-season friendly. Many&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[402764,402782,402746,402751,402773,402749,402742,402767,402763,402744,402748,402759,402747,64,63,402753,402776,402780,6187,1635,7770,525,402756,402768,25663,402772,402758,402745,62756,377208,402755,289751,382196,29219,402750,402766,46907,402775,2953,1314,402781,85,24942,402770,402740,57712,402754,402762,402771,402769,381352,402757,402761,379168,402741,377511,402774,288453,103181,402743,165057,288,402777,402778,402752,380272,22514,402765,402779,967,41313,179435,402760,377211],"class_list":["post-829378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-s-first-pre-season-match","tag-s-jack-rosser","tag-a-bulls-pitch-anyways","tag-a-chelsea-pre-season","tag-a-major-issue","tag-a-pre-season-friendly","tag-a-sellout","tag-a-soccer-game","tag-accor-stadium","tag-an-alleged-cheating-scandal","tag-an-english-club","tag-an-english-side","tag-an-interesting-pitch","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bbc-journalist-nizaar-kinsella","tag-better-days","tag-both-sporting-and-musical-three-matches","tag-chelsea","tag-fans","tag-fire","tag-fun","tag-grass-deterioration","tag-great-stadium","tag-host","tag-iconic-aussie-venue","tag-it-chelsea","tag-just-1-fans","tag-kayo","tag-kayo-sports-new","tag-not-a-great-pitch","tag-olympic-park","tag-overseas-live","tag-pitch","tag-poms","tag-pre-season-friendly","tag-saturday","tag-several-teams-and-events","tag-signs","tag-social-media","tag-south-sydney-rabbitohs-vs-melbourne-and-canterbury-bulldogs-vs-warriors","tag-sports","tag-spurs","tag-st-george-illawara","tag-suitable-condition","tag-sydney-fc","tag-sydney-olympic-stadium","tag-the-accor","tag-the-accor-stadium","tag-the-allianz-stadium","tag-the-best","tag-the-biggest-aussie","tag-the-bulldogs-women","tag-the-conditions","tag-the-field-watch","tag-the-ground","tag-the-heavy-use","tag-the-middle","tag-the-pitch","tag-the-poms","tag-the-state","tag-the-sun","tag-the-sydney-super-cup","tag-the-times-journalist-peter-rutzler","tag-the-turf","tag-the-venue","tag-the-weekend","tag-their-pre-season-tonight","tag-this-year-the-accor-stadium","tag-tottenham","tag-wednesday","tag-western-sydney-wanderers","tag-x-user","tag-your-first-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829378","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=829378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}