A last-minute relocation of the pitch for the Champions League final has prompted growing concern about his condition.
In February, UEFA confirmed that the 2021/22 final, to be played between Real Madrid and Liverpool, would be moved from St Petersburg to Paris due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
As a result, organizers were in a rush to get the Stade de France in Paris ready to host tonight’s final, as a backlog of events meant the new pitch was not fully laid until 1am on Thursday, the Telegraph revealed.
The Stade de France has made up for events that were postponed due to the Covid pandemic.
Today the stadium organizers oversaw the second of two sold out nights for French new wave band Indochine.
The plan was then to focus on preparing the football pitch in time for the French Nations League game against Denmark on June 3.
But UEFA’s move meant they had a week less than originally planned to prepare for the biggest game on the European club football calendar.
“Originally we were ready to lay the new turf in four to five days,” Benoit Lavallee, chief executive of iTurf Management, which operates four stadiums in France, including the Stade de France, told the Telegraph.
“With the Champions League final, it became a bit more of a challenge.”
We had to move it in 48 hours.”
In a race against the clock, Lavellee explained how 24 refrigerated trucks arrived from Spain on Sunday to transform the Stade de France from a concert venue into a football venue.
The playing field, which is now more and more often a hybrid of five percent synthetic, is divided into 500 rolls. The first is said to have arrived in Paris around midnight on Monday.
Work started at 2am on Tuesday and they are reported to have been “non-stop” getting the job done from then on, with workers on the field finishing things by 1am on Thursday.
It will be a bone of contention for both Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp and Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti when the pitch becomes the focal point in such a big game.
Both teams got an early glimpse of the surface as they practiced on it last night.
Traditionally, UEFA allows finalists to get a feel for the neutral venue and pitch by training on it the night before the game.
This pitch will run for much of June, with French Nations League games on June 3rd against Denmark and June 13th against Croatia.
His last appearance will be the top 14 rugby final on June 24 before organizers come back to pull it up.
Selected from Dailymail.co.uk
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