Sometimes the placement of an advertisement in a matchday programme creates a piece of unintentional, brilliant editorial irony. Page 19 of the March 2014 edition features a massive, full-page ad for FieldTurf Benelux, a company specializing in artificial grass systems. The ad boasts about “top quality FIFA systems” and “guaranteed short lines and constant top quality.”
To understand why this is so ironic, you have to look at the context of FC Groningen in early 2014. As we documented in previous issues, the natural grass pitch at the Euroborg had become a massive headache. Players like Lorenzo Burnet and Género Zeefuik were publicly complaining in their interviews about the heavy, muddy surface ruining their style of play. Even worse, the club was locked in a bitter legal dispute with the KNVB over a €20,000 fine because the pitch was deemed unplayable during a winter freeze, forcing a match cancellation. Amidst all this natural grass misery, the matchday booklet presents a glossy, perfectly green, weather-proof plastic alternative right in front of the fans’ eyes.
This advertisement perfectly encapsulates the great Dutch football debate of the 2010s. Tired of winter cancellations and maintenance costs, many Eredivisie clubs were actively ripping out their natural grass and replacing it with artificial turf. The temptation for Groningen’s management, staring at this ad while paying KNVB fines, must have been immense.
A Look into the Future
Despite the immense pressure and the obvious temptations advertised in their own magazine, FC Groningen stubbornly refused to switch to a fully artificial pitch at the Euroborg. They chose the harder, more expensive path of investing in hybrid grass technology and better undersoil heating. History proved them absolutely right. By the 2020s, the KNVB and Eredivisie players launched a massive campaign to ban artificial turf from the top flight, forcing clubs that had switched to plastic to spend millions reverting to natural grass. Groningen’s stubbornness in 2014 meant they were already on the right side of history.