Stade Louis-II has a new playing surface, laid ahead of the coming season’s matches.
The stadium’s management team replaced the summer turf with a reinforced grass better suited to winter conditions and the demands of professional football.
For the warmer months, the club has turned to Bermuda grass, a hardy variety that copes well with high temperatures and needs only two waterings a week, without fungicide or insecticide. But Bermuda struggles once the weather turns, which is why the pitch is switched out again as autumn approaches.
Franck Nicolas, AS Monaco’s Pitch Manager, explained the thinking to Monaco Info. Even when the summer grass holds up well, he said, there’s never a guarantee it will survive a full winter, and UEFA’s standards also factor into the decision to change the surface.
Last season, the Stade Louis-II pitch was ranked eighth in Ligue 1’s pitch quality table, with a strong score of 17.01 out of 20.
The new surface is designed to be more resistant, able to withstand the busy run of fixtures coming over the rest of the season.
Image courtesy of Communication Department – Stéphane Danna