European champions Paris Saint-Germain are set to play their home games on Irish turf this season – after changing the pitch on the Parc des Princes stadium with 700 rolls of grass imported from Ireland.
A sequence of heatwaves in France this summer time broken the enjoying floor on the stadium, forcing the membership to play its first “home” match away to Rennes on August twenty third, for which it incurred a €150,000 wonderful.
In a bid to rectify the difficulty earlier than PSG’s match in opposition to Monaco on Friday, its head groundsman Jonathan Calderwood travelled to Ireland to go turf purchasing along with his workforce final week, in accordance to L’Equipe.
They selected the Irish product forward of a number of different choices and 700 rolls measuring a metre vast and up to 10 metres lengthy had been shipped to France and put in from August twenty sixth to twenty eighth.
The gardening workforce then bought to work to promote root growth and a sequence of checks occurred to assess how the turf had settled and whether or not it might be prepared for the match in opposition to Monaco.
Despite the quick time-frame, the brand new pitch has now bought the inexperienced mild and is prepared to host a top-level match with out posing any hazard to the gamers, the membership has stated.
The price of changing the heat-damaged pitch with the imported Irish turf has not been disclosed. However, L’Equipe reported that estimates exceeding €500,000 should not uncommon for this sort of challenge.