News & Media
Kloten’s artificial turf impresses FC Arsenal
The English top club visited the new artificial turf facility in Kloten and now considers the product for their own training hall. Since October, over 400 aspiring soccer players have been training weekly on the new artificial turf at the soccer facility Stighag in Kloten. On Tuesday, the site greeted prominent visitors from England. A delegation of the Premier-League-Club FC Arsenal examined the artificial turf and is much impressed by it. “The qualities of this artificial Green are remarkable”, says the technical boss, Jack Ironside, to the ‘Klotener Anzeiger”. Yet, artificial turf products are not new. For some 60 years, artificial turf has been used as an alternative to the natural Green. While earlier products led to premature flattening of the soccer fields and to burns caused by tumbling, the facility in Kloten, installed by TISCA Tischhauser & Co. AG, not only exhibits the same ball behavior as on natural grass but also provides lower risk of injury.
Soft shell, hard core
This achievement is based on a new bi-component fiber which has been developed in collaboration with the Swiss material tinkerers of the Empa, the ETH and a German partner company. The exemplary artificial turf blade consists of a hard core and a soft coat, thus eliminating the conventional support with sand or granule.The new development leads to the persuasion of the visitors of the English fourth ranked champion league: “Until now, I have not been aware of an artificial turf without sand support and have not heard of such either” says Ironside. This gives the Swiss product a good chance to be installed in the training hall next to the soccer field of the FC Arsenal.
