A week after the draw (0-0) in Pau, the DFCO footballers receive Caen on Saturday August 13, 2022 for the 3rd day of Ligue 2. In the heat, they will find their lawn at the Stade Gaston Gérard. How is the green rectangle of the Burgundian theater of dreams going through this scorching and above all extremely dry summer? Dijon and its Metropolis being in yellow on the maps published by the Prefecture of Côte-d’Or, at the “alert” threshold, it is still allowed to water the lawns in the stadiums, before 11 a.m. or after 6 p.m. Report on this relatively recent lawn, installed in 2020, with Stéphane Maître, gardener and responsible for the lawn of the DFCO.
Little damage, given the conditions
“As long as we have the right to water, it will remain green”confirms Stéphane Maître. “When we redid the ground in 2020, a week later we also had 40 degrees. It’s not the first big summer we’ve had, and that was pretty good”. Watering, in accordance with what is provided for by the prefectural decree, is done at night. “We have a programmer, the whole system is integrated into the ground”, says the gardener. The same system is in place on the three grass pitches of the Saint-Apollinaire training (and training) center.
Only visible traces, burnt strips behind some sidelineswhere the natural grass rubs shoulders with the synthetic that surrounds the meadow. “I had to adjust a few small sprinklers, the synthetic heats up quite strongly and the slightest lack of watering, you immediately have marks”, explains the gardener. Unlike the Stade de la Mosson in Montpellier, the lawn is however not affected by fungi.
Stéphane Maître feels the effects of drought at the time of grounds maintenance : “We feel that it is more tense than in other years, because there is much less damage on match nights. Saint Etienne there was intensity, and behind we didn’t have any big uprooting”which can happen when the ground is soft or wet. “When the pitches are like this, the turf tears up much less, repairs take less time”. The DFCO will play two home games (Caen and Nîmes), but the lawn manager says to himself “rather zen”.
Like any good gardener, he is fussy: “The height of the grass should be between 23 and 28 millimeters, he explains, referring to the rules set by the League. For me, it would have been nice to raise the mowing height a little, so that the lawn suffers less”.
“It’s really for the safety of the players”
At the beginning of August, the Professional Football League (LFP) announced that it was suspending its “lawn championship”, won last season by FC Sochaux. The LFP recommended that clubs “to study locally whether the most rational watering possible can be implemented”. “We try to be as fair as possible, and to water as little as possible, confirms Stéphane Maître. Unfortunately when we pass the 30 degrees, we are obliged to put the necessary doses to have a mat that is playable”.
For the lawn manager, it’s not a question of aesthetics or comfort : “It’s really for the safety of the players. It’s a bit like the debate that there had been on the Tour de France where they were watering the road in certain places for the safety of the riders. They are professional players, there is an intensity of play. If you start to have hard pitches like pebbles, it will be complicated for them”.
Seasoned, the gardener hears the criticisms, many this summer. Watering the stadiums would be misused water, at a time when some farmers are struggling to water their animals. “I have spent most of my professional career in golf courses, so the critics I know wellhe smiles. Obviously, in these episodes, we always find it absurd to water the lawn, and I can understand that. Except that if we don’t water, we stop the championships”.
A water reservoir directly in the stadium?
The question of water makes Stéphane Maître think, who has offers. “What would be good on large stadiums like here would be to provide a water storage area for the specific watering of the pitch. A bit like what happens on the city’s tram lines, where it is storage water (green water, not drinkable, editor’s note) which allows watering. A project that would require work. “When they redo the Doras stand, they will have to think about it, we must take this problem very seriously”, he indicates.
Recovery water, and why not grass more resistant to episodes of drought ? The idea is submitted to him. “We can always work on new varieties, he answers. We could discuss it with the DFCO for the next few years, but despite everything, it is necessary to have watering to have a green ground which has a certain flexibility”.