Uefa must help tackle ‘unacceptable’ pitches – Bompastor

Sonia Bompastor, Chelsea’s manager, has demanded that Uefa take action to prevent women’s teams from playing on “unacceptable” pitches.

Arsenal legend Ian Wright called the playing surface during the Champions League defeat by Real Madrid on Tuesday a “disgrace.”

The Estadio Alfredo di Stefano, the home of Real’s men’s reserves, quickly experienced poor playing conditions with large mud patches appearing on the stitched hybrid pitch.

Following Chelsea vs. Manchester City’s Women’s League Cup final on Saturday at Derby County’s Pride Park, players and pundits complained.

“I believe it’s just unacceptable to be able to play on those pitches,” Bompastor said, “first of all because of the quality, but also, perhaps most importantly, because of the players’ safety.”

“We need to take this into account right away, and we should be in the position where the women’s game should have the best pitches possible in the 20th century.”

Bompastor argued that while she believes in raising “our voices” regarding playing standards, the governing body of European football should also play a role.

Real Madrid played on that pitch against Barcelona, and the pitch was awful, Bompastor continued.

When there is an international break for the men’s side and the stadium, which is a large stadium, is available, “I think Uefa should take some decisions and should [force] the clubs to have another pitch,” he said.

I am aware that it will cost money, but you must make a decision if you want to play for women’s football.

Uefa deems the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano pitch to be an elite surface, but it severely deteriorated before Tuesday’s game due to heavy rain.

Before kick-off, the match officials conducted an inspection and determined that it was playable, but once the game began to deteriorate, it started to deteriorate severely.

In contrast, the pitch at Pride Park had a rough surface, large stretches of mud, and bare turf in the League Cup final victory for Chelsea.

Derby and Madrid were “two isolated incidents,” according to interim Man City boss Nick Cushing.

According to what I understand, the stadium in Madrid was a weather-related problem, which is really challenging. Real Madrid’s stadium is typically much better than that, according to Cushing.

Renee Slegers, manager of Arsenal, acknowledged the positive impact the playing conditions had had had had on her side’s 2-0 defeat in their quarter-final first leg.