Are you watching the World Cup football matches and thinking “why can’t my grass at home look like that?”. Well do we have some good news for you: many of the World Cup stadiums are playing on Bermuda grass — the same stuff you can grow at home right here in South Australia.
You can have a lush new lawn before the final whistle blows!
Stadium lawns
FIFA has strict guidelines for the playing surface of all their football matches in the World Cup. As the games this year are played between different countries and climates (Canada, USA and Mexico) achieving this requires a highly coordinated and standardised approach. They have to ensure that a match played in Vancouver delivers the same performance as one in Mexico City. To ensure this, they have two primary playing surfaces:
Cool-season system
- Kentucky Bluegrass (Poa pratensis)
- Perennial Ryegrass (Lolium perenne)
- Standardised blend: 84% KBG / 16% PRG
Warm-season system
- Hybrid Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon × transvaalensis)
This approach ensures that all pitches fall within a defined performance range for traction, ball roll, surface stability, and visual presentation regardless of geography.
The stadiums also have the best in technology for watering and maintenance including top of the line grow lighting systems, robotic machinery and irrigation systems.
How to grow a world cup pitch at home
We’re not saying it’s achievable to have 22 full grown men run around your backyard and have your lawn still looking immaculate, afterall, you likely don’t have a 25 people maintenance team at your disposal. However, you can take your turf care up a notch and boast a flat, green and hardy instant lawn for backyard footie, bbqs and more.
Choose the right turf
The first and most important step is to choose the right turf. Don’t just pick a lawn because your neighbour or friend has it, make sure to choose a variety that is suitable to your yard and lifestyle. This includes looking at the amount of sunlight the area receives per day, the traffic it will receive and how often you want to be looking after it.
The warm season world cup stadiums use hybrid bermuda and we find our own hybrid bermuda TifTuf to be suitable to most backyards. It’s a beautiful fine leaf, hardy lawn that is happy in up to 50% shade. You can put a bit of work into it and have a fit for purpose backyard area or you can put a lot of work into it and have champion turf that even FIFA would approve of.
Mowing
One of the most underrated lawn care tips is all to do with mowing. Mowing regularly and correctly can turn your lawn from a patchy mess to a lush, thick green oasis.
Unfortunately, it does take a bit of work and you have to be dedicated!
If you want to get FIFA quality turf at your home, you will need to be mowing frequently enough so that only one-third of the leaf is removed with each pass. This way you will be minimising stress caused to the lawn, helping avoid scalping from occurring and keeping the grass healthier.
For flat lawn, clean cut and even stripes, choose a cyclinder mower instead of a rotary one. With a cylinder mower, you will get a much cleaner cut as it won’t tear the grass like a rotary mower. With any mower, it is important to ensure your blades are sharp for the best cut possible.
Products
If you want your lawn to perform great year-round, it is better to use a preventative option rather than treating if damage occurs. Timing for products throughout the year is so important to ensure your lawn has everything it needs to get through till the next season.
Check out our lawn care calendar here.
Use Oxafert weed pre-emergent to prevent weeds from popping up and ensure to have some Estate Herbicide on hand for any that do make it through. Apply Grub Guard Ultimate twice a year to prevent pests as they can do a lot of damage very quickly to your lawn.
Plant Growth Regulators
This is when things start getting interesting in the world of turf at home. Plant growth regulators slow the vertical growth of your lawn while maintaining horizontal growth, encouraging thick lush grass growth. Plant growth regulators like Amigo reduce grass growth (reduced mowing requirements), increase root density, and increase durability, along with many other benefits. They are the number one secret to stadium quality lawn at home.
Lawn care doesn’t have to be difficult, even for champion level turf. Choose the right variety for you, give it the love and attention it needs and you can spend time watching the actual football instead of the field.
