Antonio Conte slams pitch condition ahead of Euro 2016 match

Chelsea’s groundskeeping staff at Stamford Bridge are the next members of the Blues family to start sweating Antonio Conte’s arrival at the club.

Antonio Conte does not think any detail is too slight when planning training, video sessions or in-game formations. Conte will level new demands on Chelsea’s players, coaches, conditioning staff, scouts… and groundskeepers?

While walking the pitch in Lille ahead of tomorrow’s final Euro 2016 group stage match between Italy and the Republic of Ireland, Conte was incensed at the state of the pitch. According the Telegraph, Conte “condemned” the pitch which is “not up to the standard of the competition.”

Conte’s comments can come as no surprise to the stadium managers or tournament organizers. Host country manager Didier Deschamps decried the pitch after France’s 0-0 draw with Switzerland. Stadium officials painted portions of the surface green in an attempt to conceal the damage from recent extreme weather.

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The pitch was already off-limits to the teams for training, with organizers citing the known “delicate condition” of the surface. Players, coaches and staff were limited to the walkabout as their only exposure to the site of tomorrow’s match.

Little action appears to have been taken until Conte spoke up earlier today. UEFA subsequently ordered stadium officials to refurbish the pitch overnight. A full replacement of turf from the Netherlands is slated to arrive on Friday.

UEFA officials are confident that the new pitch will be incident- and complaint-free for the final two matches in Lille, on June 26 and July 1. They cite the on-the-fly pitch replacement in Basel during the Euro 2008 tournament, which raises questions about what long-term policies and procedures need to be in place to ensure this does not happen again. Six months ago the US Women’s National Soccer Team cancelled a friendly due to pitch conditions, leading to waves of negative publicity that UEFA will surely seek to avoid.

The last time Antonio Conte made headlines for criticizing a pitch was in December 2013. His Juventus team was bounced from the Champions League by Galatasary in a match that Conte and his opponent Roberto Mancini agreed should not have been played given the condition of the snow-covered pitch.

"We certainly tried to have the game postponed and met with the UEFA delegate beforehand, but nobody wanted to listen…. Didier Drogba said it was the same thing for both teams, but I pointed out it wasn’t, because we were trying to play football. (Goal.com)"

Juventus’ 1-0 loss was the second attempt to play the match. Earlier in the week, the match was abandoned after 31 minutes due to blizzard conditions. On the rescheduled match day, piles of snow lined the perimeter of the pitch while fans were bundled up to stay warm.

Conte added, “Maybe I need to improve my English, as the officials don’t seem to understand me very well.”

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Judging by UEFA’s immediate response, Conte seems to be getting his point across quite accurately these days.

Are Conte’s concerns over-blown, or is this an unacceptable failure by UEFA and Lille to allow the tournament to proceed with these conditions?  Is UEFA risking player safety with substandard pitch conditions?