On Friday night in the match between the Western Sydney Wanderers and Newcastle Jets, the safety of players from both teams was compromised.
“In our game, the quality of the playing surface afforded to the players is critical. It is impossible for any player to play to their capacity when a fundamental component of the game is hijacked,” said PFA Chief Executive John Didulica.
“Through our discussions with the clubs and FFA since the match we accept the extreme weather leading into the fixture in Sydney contributed to the dangerous conditions. However, this does not change the heightened risk of injury that players were exposed to nor the overall inadequacy of the surface for football. I think everybody in the game – players, administrators, coaches and fans – deserve higher standards of care from our stadiums if they wish to host football matches.”
As is regular practice, the PFA will survey all players involved in the match in order to ascertain the collective feedback on the condition of the playing surface however we confirm that a number of players, upon their pre-match pitch inspection, raised serious pitch concerns to the PFA prior to kick-off.
The PFA will continue to advance this issue during its scheduled weekly meeting with FFA.
