- King Power Stadium’s pitch could potentially host fixtures from four different competitions in 2016/17, including the UEFA Champions League for the first time
- Ledwidge went on to discuss how recognition on social media has helped to boost the industry’s profile
Ahead of an action-packed 2016/17 campaign, Leicester City Head Groundsman John Ledwidge revealed just what happens to the pitches at King Power Stadium and Belvoir Drive during the close season.
Alongside defending their Premier League crown, Claudio Ranieri’s Foxes will compete in the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history.
And preparing pitches – both at King Power Stadium and Belvoir Drive – for the Club’s potential involvement in four competitions requires a strict plan of action, according to John.
He told Foxes Player HD: “The close season is probably our busiest time of the year. It’s the time where we take all the pitches up and start again.
“Every year we have a management programme that we plan for as early as January, and as soon as we can, we get that plan into action.
“This year, we’ve had a bigger project at the training ground. To replicate what we’ve got at the stadium, we’ve stitched in Desso, so it’s now an exceptionally good pitch.
“Everything has been planned for for the Champions League, so hopefully we can raise the standards. We’ll definitely maintain the standard we set last year, so we’re now aiming to push that forward.
“The stadium gets a lot of attention, but the training ground is just as important, so we have to deliver the same standards for both. The pressure will certainly be on us to produces those standards again when the Club competes in the Champions League.”
King Power Stadium’s pitch gained plenty of admirers throughout the 2015/16 season, particularly on social media, where some stunning patterns caught the eye of many.
That is not only recognition for the Club’s grounds team, who in November 2015 won the Institute of Groundsmanship’s Grounds Team of the Year Award, but also for the industry as a whole.
John added: “The reaction was somewhat overwhelming for all of us to be honest. The patterns have been a big talking point and it’s something that we do for the good of the industry.
“We’ve got a brilliant platform here as we’re allowed to express ourselves, and those patterns give the industry the recognition that it deserves.
“It got talked about worldwide, all over social media, and even some of our own images were posted, which for the lads was great. We set out to raise our profile and we managed to do that.
“Everything we do is a team effort. We’ll sit down at the stadium and figure out what we want to do and measure it out. It’s a little like a dot-to-dot.”
Find out more by watching the full interview on Foxes Player HD .