The groundskeeper for the Manaus stadium in Brazil admitted the turf was in horrible shape and probably will not be in shape in time for England and Italy’s game on Saturday.
“Frankly, Manaus is in bad shape,” said Carlos Botella, head groundskeeper for the Royal Verd company. “We’ve started to implement an emergency plan to try to save the field and improve it as much as possible, but I don’t think it’ll be in good condition by the weekend. Yesterday we put fertilizer and we’ll increase the fertilizing process with biostimulants and seeds to try to get the most out of the grass.”
England wants to send out an official to inspect the turf. Pictures of the field posted on Wednesday showed brown and dry grass. Manaus sits in the rainforest and can only be reached by plane or boat frustrating maintenance efforts. The weather will be hot and humid for Saturday’s game.
“The maintenance has been complicated in Manaus. There are no roads, all the machinery and materials had to be brought by ship,” he said. “There’s no fertilizer, no seeds. Everything has been complicated.”
It is not the only stadium with problems. The venue in Sao Paulo hosting the opening game between Brazil and Croatia was not tested for full capacity until Thursday’s game.
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