September 13, 2004

With Fifa's funding, artificial turf will now be laid at spiritual home of Singapore football

The grand old lady of Singapore football is set for another makeover, after it was confirmed that an artificial playing surface will be laid at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

The Football Association of Singapore's (FAS) plan for the artificial turf will be presented to Fifa on Sept 22 & is expected to be approved by the end of the month.

With Fifa supplying funding for the turf through their Goal Project programme, work on Jalan Besar's new artificial playing surface is likely to begin next month. The surface, expected to cost around $800,000, will take 4 to 5 months to install.

FAS general secretary, John Koh is delighted with the development as he believes this is the future of football in Singapore, particularly with our weather conditions & scarcity of land for grass pitches.

Also it had already been seen that good football can be played on an artificial turf at the Singapore Sports School as that is a very good field & FAS are hoping that Jalan Besar will be even better.

Further helping FAS development towards artificial turf is Fifa's announcement in February this year, that artificial turfs would be allowed in all competitions, including internationals, raised a great deal of debate worldwide.

But artificial turf is not without it critics with some players & coaches worldwide claiming that playing on artificial turf raised the frequency of injuries, while administrators of turfs installed in the likes of Finland, Austria & Scotland dismissed those claims.

On the side of the administrators of turfs include Fifa head Blatter who maintained that technology has made artificial playing surfaces virtually indistinguishable from grass surfaces.