How is a football field made?

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1. Even if the ground where the ball will roll is relatively flat, it all starts with good leveling. A press goes over the area to smooth out any unevenness and compact the ground — which prevents it from sinking later.

two. After leveling, the ground is not completely flat. It gains a small incline. On a pitch 60 m wide, the sidelines are at a level 30 cm lower than the center of the pitch. This helps to drain the rain that falls on the lawn.

3. But only the slope is not enough. It is necessary to build a drainage system, consisting of 100 m of pipes. They are placed in small trenches, in a design that resembles a herringbone. Pipes drain rainwater to drains outside the field

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4. With a diameter of 10 cm, the pipes have several small holes at the top. Around them there is a layer of gravel and a filtering blanket. The water that penetrates the soil is “filtered” by the blanket and stones before reaching the pipes, preventing them from clogging with sand

5. The next step is the irrigation system. Watering the field with a hose does not work, because the water is never evenly distributed. Irrigation is done with pipes connected to the stadium’s water network.

6. The water reaches the lawn through sprinklers, which resemble rotating jets for watering the garden. The sprinkler is underground so as not to disturb the players. When water reaches the pipes, the pressure pushes the cap to the surface.

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7. Before planting the grass, it is necessary to pour a mixture of sand and organic matter called topsoil onto the land — the sand favors the flow of water to the drainage pipes. The grass fixes its roots on a layer of up to 30 cm of this special soil.

8. Above the topsoil there is still a very nutritious fertilizer. It’s a thin layer, but it makes a huge difference in grass growth, as it works as a «food supplement». This guarantees the survival of the vegetation in the first days after planting.

9. To plant the grass, seedlings or plates called mats can be used. With the mats, the lawn is ready faster, in 45 days. Bermuda grass is one of the most used in Brazilian fields

10. The grass in the fields grows fast. She needs to be trimmed up to twice a week to maintain an average height of 24mm. The designs on the lawn are made at the time of cutting, by the trimming machine

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11. The machine has a cylinder for “combing” the grass. Depending on the direction in which she crosses the field, the “hairstyle” is on one side or the other. As a result, the grass strips reflect light with different intensities, creating two shades of green.

CONSULTANCY Paulo Azeredo, agronomist at Greenleaf Gramados