The Chief Executive Officer of Monimechelle Sports Facility Construction Ltd, Ebi Egbe, says anyone advocating for 100 percent natural grass in Nigeria stadium is doing the nation’s football a disservice. “Not because natural grass is bad. Natural grass is beautiful, it is excellent, when properly constructed and professionally maintained, natural grass can produce world class football. But there is the uncomfortable question nobody wants to answer,” Egbe said in a message to The Guardian on Friday.

He asked: “Who will maintain it. What is the maintenance budget? Where are the qualified groundsmen? Where are the pitch maintenance machines? Where is the irrigation programme? Where is the drainage management? Where is the recovery period between matches? Who is testing the pitch? And most importantly, what happens six months after the commissioning ceremony?”

According to him, Nigerian football has developed a dangerous habit. “We build a beautiful natural grass pitch, unveil it, politicians take photographs, officials walk across it and the media celebrates it. Then the maintenance culture disappears. And months later, everybody begins asking what happened to the pitch? I have spent decades around football pitches, and I can say that a football pitch is not a painting. You cannot commission it once and admire it forever.”

Egbe continues: “A pitch is a living sporting infrastructure. It needs money. It needs science. It needs equipment. It needs qualified people. It needs discipline. And it needs continuous maintenance.

“A pitch can look magnificent in photographs and still fails the real tests of football surface hardness, traction, ball behaviour, uniformity, shock absorption, stability, drainage and overall playability. So why are we still arguing about whether a pitch is 100 percent natural or synthetic as if the percentage alone determines quality? That is the wrong conversation,” Egbe stated.

According to him, Monimichelle NETPRO/PRT systems are high performance hybrid synthetic football turf system engineered to deliver the playing characteristics associated with a properly constructed elite natural grass pitch while providing the durability, consistency and all weather reliability of an advanced synthetic system.

“Unlike conventional artificial turf, Monimichelle NETPRO/PRT systems are designed around the principle that the football pitch is a performance surface not just a green carpet. The system focuses on key football requirements including player to surface interaction, traction, stability, shock absorption and reduced injury risk. Others are ball behavior which is consistent ball roll, rebound and pace. In term of durability, it has ability to withstand intensive usage, weather challenges and community to professional demands. And in the area of drainage performance, it is easy maintaining playability during heavy rainfall when properly engineered with the correct sub base and drainage system,” Egbe added.

He further explained that conventional Monimichelle NETPRO/PRT Turf are designed mainly for durability and frequent use to reproduce elite football playing characteristics. “Monimichelle’s engineered surface approach and natural infill technology are different from natural grass engineered to replicate the response of quality natural grass, where maintenance is difficult. Why hybrid synthetic technology?

“FIFA recognises that football surfaces can include natural grass, hybrid systems and synthetic football turf, with each option having different performance and maintenance considerations. Synthetic football turf systems that meet FIFA standards undergo laboratory and field testing covering areas such as player interaction, ball interaction, durability and safety.

“The Monimichelle PRT system at Remo Stars Stadium achieved FIFA Quality certification after testing of the installed pitch, including performance characteristics such as ball roll, rebound, durability and player-surface interaction.

Monimichelle NETPRO / PRT hybrid synthetic turf system is the future of African elite football pitches because it represents a shift from simply building football fields to engineering football performance environments.
Football needs a playable pitch not merely a beautiful story and content pictures about it.

“When you watch the Super Eagles play at home, you will be complaing about their slow pace and poor ball control. The problem is not the players but the pitch. The grass at Uyo stadium in which they plan now is 15 years old.”

If you bring the best Formula One driver to drive from Port Harcourt to Ijebu Ode, he will die. We should start construction on pitches that are engireened to survive in Africa. When I finish work at the General Yakubu Gowon Stadium in Port Harcourt, I will bring in a team of experts from FIFA to inspect it with computers, which they will take back to England for test. If it passes, FIFA will then issue a certificate before it can be put to use, Egbe stated.