Football pitch maintenance and management

Football Pitch Maintenance: 22. Pitch Preparation advert image shown if present
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Appropriate pitch preparation is needed to ensure that a pitch is safe to play on and meets the requirements of the Laws of the game is essential prior to each match.

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Football Pitch Maintenance: 23. Pitch Repairs advert image shown if present
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After match repairs, including divoting is always beneficial as this can help areas recover quicker if any cut up turf can be trod back down or tamped back down with a fork, or special divot fork.

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Football Pitch Maintenance: 24. Top-dressing advert image shown if present
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Sand top-dressing is an important part of football pitch maintenance, although it can often be neglected due the cost of the material and its application.

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Football Pitch Maintenance: 25. End of Season Renovation advert image shown if present
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End of season renovation work will typically consist of cultivation of worn areas, if not the entire pitch, including scarification, or chain harrowing on basic level pitches, decompaction rather than routine aeration work, fertiliser application, overseeding and top-dressing.

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Football Pitch Maintenance: 26. End of Season Renovation Undertaken by a Contractor advert image shown if present
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For many clubs, especially those maintained by volunteers with a limited range of machinery, the use of a contractor to carry out the complete range of end of season renovations is the most appropriate option.

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Football Pitch Maintenance: 27. Watering / Irrigation advert image shown if present
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Watering is often a difficult issue for many pitches as they will only have natural rainfall to rely on to help seed germination and establishment during renovation in May.

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Football Pitch Maintenance: 28. Wetting Agents advert image shown if present
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The use of wetting agents where dry patch conditions exist, especially on the more highly maintained and specially constructed sand pitches, can help to ensure adequate soil moisture is available to a plant.

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Football Pitch Maintenance: 29. Use of Pesticides advert image shown if present
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Where pesticides and other chemical products are used, this must be in a responsible way and one in which all other actions have been undertaken to reduce the need for their use in the first place.

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Football Pitch Maintenance: 30. Controls v Expectations advert image shown if present
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Good working practices can help to mitigate some of the negative effects of weed, pest and/or disease infestation and attack, but they are unlikely to eliminate them altogether.

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Football Pitch Maintenance: 31. Weeds advert image shown if present
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Weed growth and flowering of weeds can be quite noticeable during May and June when weeds can be particularly active.

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