From the Mail? Never!

Chelsea palyed most of the season on an abysmal pitch a few years ago. Nothing was said. This is more to do with a way of the clique that is the Premier League finding a way to expel clubs like Wigan Athletic and Hull City and to prevent them being able to get back in. The PL doesn't care about RL enough to want to evict our clubs. It just gives them a way to eject clubs like Wigan Athletic that don't put as much in their coffers but that seem to avoid relegation each year so can't be dumped under current rules.

don't think HFC have much to worry about given the Tigers performances. The pitch is the least of their worries!

Wembley should be unaffected, they've layed tarmac at pitch level in the past so a league game isn't going to affect it. Besides they over spent so much they need every single event going to make it viable.

I don't know about Wigan but in the case of the KC it will be Hull City who are put in a worse position than FC. It is a council owned stadium and we have a 99 year lease of the ground (or we did when it was built, will be about 92 now). This means either it's up to City to find somewhere else to play or they have to give us some very hefty compensation. And they don't have the money to do either.

Besides, it won't be an issue at all when they go down next month.

World Cup 2013 opener should be fine

The DW Stadium was built on the premise that it was a dual purpose stadium, Wigan have a 50+ year lease there.

If the Premier League want us & Hull FC out, they should build new stadia for the football teams if anything, as the rugby teams can actually sell out their grounds once or twice a year.

I was sort of surprised that the piece wasnt dated 1st April... The premier league pitches were a wreck before mid Feb, and Mark (Lawro) Lawrenson was to be heard blaming the RL for the state of the pitch at Wigan before a set of 6 had been played on it! Might have something to do with the proper winter we've had at last (when grass actually stops growing!)

Why Lawrenson is employed as an 'expert' by the BBC is a mystery, when he hasn't got a clue on anything! As you say, rugby league doesn't ruin pitches over a season - the main reason is weather. Belle Vue had Super League and two football teams playing there for 2 or 3 years and the pitch was perfect thanks to the elements being able to get in and a groundsman/staff working hard on it - in my non-gardening opinion anyway!

This is just a load of hyped up nonsense.

How exactly do the FA plan to override any leases or covenants that are in place? If anything, if the FA rule that hooliganball ONLY may be played on any pitch in use by a Premier League side, then it will be the hooliganball side that has to relocate.

Either that, or the FA will need to heavily compensate the rugby teams forced to relocate. So it won't happen.

Anyway, I'm done with arguing the toss over who ruins pitches. If you look at the average state of a football pitch and where the wear and tear is, then it's obvious who causes the damage.

But given that hooliganball by its very nature appeals to the lowest common denominator, it's not surprising that they can't see the obvious, is it?

wake up and smell the coffee.
money talks. and on the grand scheme RL are small fry.
however it is absolute nonsense that the rugby wrecks pitches but what do the facts matter?

If I remember correctly thr RFL are a stakeholder in the Wembley stadium.
Rugby League was used as part of the reasoning for the funding application and funding was granted on that basis. Wembley does not belong to the FA!

It's a ridiculous story even with regards to DW and KC, but there's nothing in there to suggest Wembley would be affected, it being about a vote of Premier League clubs about Premier League pitches.

They need every game they can get at Wembley. They have Gridiron and Monster Trucks there, for goodness sake, so Rugby League is hardly in danger, although they might do well to ban Feka from playing there.

What a load of tosh that article is! The worst pitch in SL is Leeds Rhinos, they need to kick the Tykes out!

If playing rugby leads to ruined football pitches them how come [url=http://www.liberty-stadium.com/home_news_view.php?news_id=469this guy[/url won an award?

And i'd go as far to say that playing kick and clap would be far worse for a pitch than league because of all the contested scrums and piling on they get up to.

I went to Spotland and Boundary Park last season and i'd go as far to say they were the best pitches i'd seen all year, they were like bowling greens.

Their biggest problem...Ban the cricket

surely the issue is the groundstaff aren't looking after their playing surface ?

If the footballers are worried about anything, it should be the fact that practically every club in the top flight is practically insolvent

Are you talking about the team that will be playing quite a large portion of their home games at widnes next year?

Maybe if it wasnt in the Wail I would give it some credence.

Is that for all cricket games at Headingley, or is it just Test matches?

The problem is, if the premier league do decide that you cant ground share then wigan football club will be kicked out of the premier league. Im pretty sure that whelan would do all he can to make the rugby club suffer. Thinking about it, that would be mint.

Just internationals, so it's at most 6 days a year.

The issue with Headingley was the compacted state of the pitch due to the original undersoil heating they put in which prevented deep forking. The undersoil has been taken out now, but the damage had already been done.

The South Stand side around to the Carnegie Stand then got hammered by construction vehicles while the latter was being built.

Add in a couple of bad winters and the fact the pitch gets year-round heavy usage from two codes of rugby and it's hardly a surprise it's ended up like it has.

Hopefully once its relaid and has chance to settle down it'll get back to something like its former glory, certainly got a good enough groundsman working on it if the awards he keeps winning are anything to go by.

I do not know about Hull FC, but Wigan Warriors have a LEGALLY BINDING contract with both Wigan Athletic and Wigan Council for the DW Stadium (formerly JJB Stadium) to be a "multi-sport venue". When it first opened even Orrell RU had a season there.

As for banning RL from Wembley, does that mean NFL/RU/motorsports (as they have had a motoring event there) etc etc be banned too? From the national stadium? Which I'm led to believe has also a legally binding contract with the Government who part-funded the stadia, to be of a multi-sport stadia?

Was this statement by the prem league? The PL is not the FA they can't ban teams
from sharing stadiums that are already shared they can however stop the promotion of teams from championship to the PL. As most PL teams font fully own their stadia there is very little that can be done in reality.

This is the PL blowing smoke up the of prem managers who use the poor pitch as an excuse for a poor display. It's just words with no possible foundation as for the fears about wembley that is not owned by the PL so they have no authority to it.

As the article stated prem rules state football must be the MAIN occupier. With most fooseball teams playing 25+ games at home including cups etc and most rl teams playing about 17 including pre season and cup there is still no problem as football is the main use

Lazy journalism at its worst. Don't expect this to be an issue for anyone.