Inside Salt Lake Stadium's 'Near Perfect' Pitch Overhaul For Brazil, Uruguay

India take on Brazil on October 3 and Uruguay on October 6 in Kolkata's Salt Lake Stadium.© AFP

The pitch at Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata is ready to host not one, but two historic international football friendlies, with India set to take on former world champions Brazil and Uruguay. When the fixture against five-time world champions Brazil was announced, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) faced some initial hurdles, including concerns over the playing conditions. After a group from the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) visited Kolkata, they were unhappy with the condition of the pitch, forcing the AIFF into panic mode.

It was then that the AIFF decided to approach the CBF for an expert to help bring the pitch up to the required standard for the historic fixtures. Ivan Nascimento, who owns a company called Arenas in Brasilia, arrived in Kolkata and spent a month supervising the transformation of the playing surface.

During an interaction with Sportstar, Nascimento revealed that, with the help of the local team, they had managed to create a near-perfect playing surface despite the time constraint.

"Our main goal was to regularise the processes and the soil. We found some unevenness in the soil, with waves on the surface, and the grass was also very tall. So, we started with the agronomic work and then moved on to coordinating the operations so that we could transform this field into a standard international playing field," Nascimento told Sportstar.

"The main changes we had to make were to correct the soil level and make the necessary agronomic adjustments, particularly with the fertilisation. After the initial analysis, we were able to draw up a plan for what needed to be done over the following months. My role then involved coordinating the daily operations - observing and understanding how the field responded to each intervention," he added.

"In this way, we could make accurate decisions to reach the final goal: a healthy field that allows the players to perform without getting injured and provides a good spectacle for television," said Nascimento.

Nascimento also revealed the challenges involved in the transformation, as the playing surface at Salt Lake Stadium had not received adequate attention from the local authorities since the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. It was during that tournament that the artificial AstroTurf was replaced with a natural Riviera Bermuda grass surface to meet FIFA regulations.

"The main interventions were related to levelling. We needed to carry out drilling, which is aeration, to allow air to enter the soil. After that, we were able to use a roller and transform the uneven surface into a much flatter field," he added.

"Then we did very specific work on the areas where the playing lines would be painted. There was a very large deposit of paint, which was making the soil extremely hard. After correcting that, we started the mowing process," explained Nascimento.

"We came from Brazil with two teams, an agronomic team that included me and a team from the stadium department. We adjusted the operation day by day, but we also had the support of the local team that already takes care of the lawn and the pitch, which has been fantastic," he added.

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