Concerns over ‘bad’ state of England - Italy pitch

The state of the Manaus pitch, on which England and Italy are set to kick off their campaign on Saturday, is “in bad shape”, according to Carlos Botella, the head groundsman of the Royal Verd company, responsible for the upkeep of the World Cup pitches.

“Frankly Manaus is in bad shape,” said Botella. “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 fertiliser and we’ll increase the fertilising process with biostimulants and seeds to try to get the most out of the grass.”

Botella blamed access issues to the relatively remote stadium, as well as recent heavy rainfall.

“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 fertiliser, no seeds. Everything has been complicated.”

There have also been concerns raised over the readiness of the stadium amid reports of loose power cables and unfinished plastering. Both sides will train on the pitch on Friday, but England striker Wayne Rooney said his team would not be looking to the state of the pitch as any kind of excuse.

“It’s the same for ourselves and Italy so we’ll just have to deal with it,” said Rooney.

The stadium will also play host to three other World cup games, all of which will be played in the group stage. The games are Cameroon vs. Croatia, United States vs. Portugal and Honduras vs. Switzerland.