It had been too long since the Bavarian Grass Works Team was alerted to a pitch controversy — and leave it to Arsenal to be thrust right into the middle of it.
The Gunners accused Atlético Madrid of purposely not trimming its grass, leaving it unkempt, unruly, and overgrown. Back in the 70s, a patch like this would have been norm, but by today’s standards, a neat, trim, pitch has become all the rage — and expectation, if you will.
How deep did this go? Well, The Mirror’s Nathan Ridley captured the
extent of the this hairy drama. In a move out of American football, the Gunners asked for a measurement:
A bizarre piece of news cropped up before kick-off. Like Barcelona had done ahead of the quarter-finals, Arsenal demanded that UEFA measure the length of Atletico’s grass.
For context, Barca weren’t happy with the quality of the pitch when they faced Atletico earlier this year and were suspicious of the grass before their quarter-final second leg last month. But Arsenal were left red-card when the measurement came in at 26millimetres, perfectly between UEFA’s margin of 21mm and 30mm.
CBS Sports Golazo captured some of the back-and-forth and posted it on Instagram:
As the foremost authorities on professional football grass, we here at Bavarian Grass Works will be closely monitoring the situation. We know better than anyone, that when it is time for some action, there is nothing worse than having to deal with pitch of overgrown grass.
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
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