How Three Sports Came Together Over Artificial Turf

World Rugby, the Fédération Internationale de Hockey (FIH) and FIFA have had a memorandum of appreciation in region for a quantity of years with the frequent goal of making sure high exceptional synthetic turf in their respective sports.

Shared research, common checking out and joint results with the industry, however most fairly cooperation for the sake of creating activity have been the result of a decade of cooperation. We take a seem to be lower back at the origins and ask how the protagonists see the future of synthetic turf.

Starting in 2010, Rugby and Football were searching for a long lasting choice to herbal grass and determined that many of the troubles around player welfare and the technical expectations from the floor have been similar. Turning to field hockey, which had embraced artificial surfaces several a long time earlier due to the perceived gold standard consistency of an engineered surface, the three federations set a joint agenda with a imaginative and prescient to ensure synthetic turf presents a high exceptional answer for playing the respective sports activities irrespective of financial, climatic and geographical considerations.

A relationship has grown that sees trade on almost a weekly basis between the most important stakeholders in the federations, something no longer too frequent in the carrying world. Far from coming to an end, the future promised for these federations to amplify their cooperation with new tendencies around player welfare and sports technologies equally growing in the three sports.

The sports activities of hockey, football and rugby are the biggest customers of artificial turf pitches, globally. All three sports have a desire to make sure exact quality, durable amenities are supplied for their athletes. By sharing knowledge, pooling sources and working together FIFA, World Rugby and the FIH can grant a consistent message to those manufacturing and developing synthetic turf fields. This has resulted in higher quality, lower price fields being produced that helps the increase of all three sports. From sharing traits in checking out methods, producing the One Turf Standard, addressing environmental and regulatory trouble and providing and exhibiting together, FIH welcomes the probability to work with our colleagues from FIFA and World Rugby. Together the three sports activities are ensuring the improvement of artificial turf surfaces is occurring in a way that works for all.

Alastair Cox FIH Facilities and Quality Programme Manager

The relationship between World Rugby, FIFA and FIH is viewed as a giant driver of Player Welfare inside the sport of rugby globally. Regulation 22 is constructed upon the ethos of enhancing Player Welfare through proof primarily based lookup and the assistance of FIFA and FIH in this has been indispensable to the development of our standards over the remaining 10 years. The shut working relationship and efforts to align the strategy of the three IFs, while unusual in the carrying context, has been mutually really helpful in reaching the usual aim of artificial turf regulation, decreasing risk to players and enhancing first-rate of fields. Initiatives such as the One Turf concept, aligning Round Robin procedures and combined promotional messages, can solely serve to fortify this relationship shifting forward. World Rugby assume that this can only be really helpful for the enterprise and in particular these investing in artificial turf fields.

Marc Douglas World Rugby Research Turf & Equipment Manager