The executive director of Sports facilities doo Aleksandar Vučković said that the pitch of the stadium near Gorica has reached its biological maximum, and that its expiration date has expired and that it is necessary to provide a new one.
Earlier today, official information arrived that the football club Budućnost will not play the second leg of the 2nd qualifying round for the Conference League against CSKA 1948 at the stadium under Gorica, but at the "DG Arena", because Uefa decided to suspend the field, which is in a catastrophic state.
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We transmit Vučković's announcement in its entirety:
"There isn't a single show or interview in the daily newspaper where sports facilities are talked about (and there was a double-digit number of such shows and interviews) without mentioning changing the surface of the City Stadium as the first wish of the new management. The first and biggest wish. Why? That's why that we knew that the pitch is 10 years old, and its shelf life is three years! because we brought a professor from the Faculty of Biotechnology who told us that the field is suffering from various diseases and that there is no cure for it, diseases that are especially pronounced in the summer months, when the temperature in the shade is 40 degrees, and when we on the field, we measured all 55! Of the diseases that come to the fore when the terrain is over-exploited. That is why we have always emphasized that changing the terrain is our first wish. That's why we turned our desire into a proposal for public procurement last year, and that's why this year we included it in the strategic plan for the period 40-2025, noting that everything that will be done until the terrain is changed is "make-up of the dead"!
When the pitch of the City Stadium looked phenomenal, in the match against Georgia, on June 9, we publicly warned in the media that this is the period of the year when the climate suits it, and that very soon, when the heat starts, all the diseases will come to the fore and that the field will start to turn yellow! It seems that even those who listened to us didn't hear us, because today everyone is wondering how the pitch is in such a bad condition and why UEFA doesn't allow it to be played on.
We brought agronomists who maintained the Belgrade "Maracana", we brought people who maintain the pitches in BiH, all of them came as volunteers to try to help us and they all stated the same thing - the pitch had expired a long time ago.
And on such a wounded ground, four training sessions and two matches were held in just four days!!! On Monday, July 15, Dečić and his rival TNS from Wales trained before the European match. The next day, on Tuesday, they played a game. The next day, on Wednesday, Budućnost and Maleševa trained, also before their European match. The next day, Thursday, they played a game. Four official training sessions and two games at 40 degrees!!! If it was made of steel, the field wouldn't be able to withstand it. Does anyone know of any stadiums in Europe with such a schedule? And does anyone think that the Sports Facilities should have told Dečić or Budućnost that they cannot play Europe in the biggest stadium in the country?
Does anyone see what the grass is like on Wimbledon's Center Court when the semi-finals and finals are played, why is that court in worse condition then than ours is now? In weather conditions incomparably better than ours. Does anyone in England claim that it's because "two maintenance workers were taken out of the pub", because "the sprinklers don't work and the manager doesn't care", because the pitch "wasn't watered" or because another worker “went off and left the sprinklers running”? All this is "verified information" why our terrain is the way it is. Endless lies about the people who mow the field at the mentioned 55 degrees, water it, sprinkle it with garbage, sprinkle sand, put peat, scarify it, put food... Who are on duty both day and night.
Thanks to them, the field will be in better condition on Thursday, when the Buducnost - CSKA match was to be played, than before the match with Malešev! We guaranteed the people from Uefa that it would be like that, every day we sent photos to the leaders of Buducnosti and FSCG (and they further to Uefa), which clearly showed that the situation was drastically better than the previous day because we were also favored by slightly lower temperatures. We said that the delegate should come tomorrow (Wednesday) and make sure that the field is "usable", as the delegate from Finland wrote before the match between Budućnost and Maleševa. And that it will be usable and good for every next game. They didn't want to hear us.
If the field had been thought about in time, it would have been reconstructed in 2017 or 2018, then again in 2021 or 2022, and so on, as prescribed by the rules and in accordance with the expiration date. And instead, today we have terrain from 10 years ago that long ago reached its biological maximum.
We are sure that the capital city must never and will not allow something like this again, that in April and March next year, when the conditions are ideal, we will start replacing and reconstructing the entire field. Just as we warned that in July and August it will turn yellow due to illness, we are now warning that it should not mislead us when it turns green again in September and October, because that will happen. But the diseases will remain. Teren has simply expired and there is no help for him. We need a new one," stated Vučković's statement.
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